Another new telecommunications surcharge is upon us, compliments of your local phone company; beware of the Short Call Surcharge
What is it? In 2009, some telecom carriers like Qwest and Paetec are instituting surcharges on outbound short duration phone calls (calls under six seconds). The percentage and the surcharge vary by carrier but are typically 10% and a penny (or 2ยข), respectively. If less than a certain percentage of attempted calls are completed (typically 50% or 60%), then the carrier imposes a surcharge either per call or per DSO channel. For example, Paetec charges a penny per phone call, Qwest charges $10/month per DS0, or $240 per T-1.
This has the greatest financial impact on call centers and volume outbound dialer applications, most of whom are using T1s for their outbound call traffic.
Why is this being done to business phone consumers? According to some of the Incumbent local carriers (ILECs), their wholesale networks are becoming congested with these kinds of short duration calls, at times actually leading to call blockage. From what I have been reading on various telecom audit blogs, there are a few possible workarounds to avoid this charge as follows:
Set your PBX and/or internal outbound dialer to add six seconds to your hangup time on your proprietary outbound phone calls.
- Find a reliable telecom carrier that does not tack on surcharges on short duration calls. There are some out there and we’ll be glad to tell you who they are.
If you are in doubt about these charges appearing on your phone bill or have seen your T1 bills spike up recently, contact us and we can help you clarify them with a telephone bill audit of your outbound long distance call traffic and perhaps save you some phone expense:
http://www.bottaboom.com/contact-us/
Tags: telephone bill audit
