For the record

Nation's Business, Feb, 1998 by Steve Bates

* A little-noticed action by the Federal Communications Commission has led to substantial restrictions on the use of toll-free numbers at public pay phones.

The FCC ruled in October that each time a customer dials a toll-free number from a pay phone, the owner of the number must pay 28.4 cents to the owner of the phone. As a result, several owners of toll-free numbers stopped accepting calls from pay phones.

The change has been particularly burdensome for hotels, airlines, trucking companies, long-distance phone companies, firms with traveling sales representatives, and businesses that depend heavily on pagers. Estimates of the total cost to businesses and consumers range as high as $1 billion per year.

Several industry groups have asked the FCC or courts to roll back the change; at press time, none of these efforts had been successful.

The FCC action was part of a broad effort to deregulate the pay-phone industry. The initiative also boosted the cost of making a local call from a pay phone to 35 cents from 25 cents.