What is the cost of receiving toll-free calls from payphone?

Asterisk Asterisk Support
1

I’m in the process of setting up an asterisk system which will be receiving a significant number of multiple calls from payphones within the US. The caller will be dialing in using a toll-free number.

The cost from my telecom company (www.exgn.net) is 1.9 cents a minute (from within the 48 states).

Does anyone know if there will be an additional cost associated with these calls? Perhaps from the Payphone Service Provider?

Thanks!

2

There shouldn’t be any additional costs, BUT all such details can only be certainly obtained from your service provider. Nobody else can tell you what kind of service agreement you guys have. I have a toll free num $1.95/month, first 60 minutes free and 2 cents/min thereafter. So in this case I will see a standard $1.95 monthly charge and the first 60 minutes at no cost, but will then see the sum of 2cents/min for every other minute used.
I will say read through you service agreement or check with your service provider for details only them can provide. I hope this helps.

3

To add to my previous response; you will also want to make sure you don’t get “double charged” the stated price. Some companies apply the double charge rule; a forwarded call consists of two connections, an inbound call to your tollfree number on their end and an outbound connection to your phone you used to answer the call. Some companies charge for each of these connections separately and charge you twice their published rate for each minute. For example, a company advertising 2.9cents/min would actually charge you 5.8cents (2.9cents each way) for every minute of talk time or 58cents for a 10 minute conversation.
Since this number will be incoming into your * server I don’t think this should be a problem, just keep it at the back of your mind at all times when shopping for tollfree number deals.

4

Thanks for the response.

EXGN (my telecom host) is pretty light on the documentation side. I’m assuming they are a new company and haven’t gotten around to it yet. I chose them because they have a very low initial cost and I thought if things turn bad I won’t be out much money if I have to drop them.

That’s good to know about the double-charging issue. Fortunately, at this time my system only needs to receive calls.

My ultimate concern was if there was going to be some fee levied by the PSP that would effect the rate as quoted by EXGN.

Perhaps I’ll open a support ticket with them.