NY Spared Pay Phone Rate Hike ... For Now

By S. Mitra Kalita STAFF WRITER- September 8, 2001

Verizon's plan to increase local pay phone calls to 50 cents doesn't affect New York - but it's only a matter of time and already consumers are outraged.

The telecommunications giant announced Friday that it will raise prices in most markets from 35 cents to 50  cents. New Yorkers, who have paid a quarter for local pay phone calls since  1984, are among those spared, for now.

"It will likely happen at some point in the future," said Verizon spokesman John Bonomo. "Eventually, we will move to 50 cents in all of our markets."

Verizon operates 430,000 pay phones in 33 states, but their revenues have plummeted with the popularity of cellular phones. In the past 2 1/2 years, pay phone use dropped 23 percent,  Bonomo said, refusing to divulge specific figures.

The company  emphasizes the 50-cent call is for an unlimited number of minutes. The pay phone  increase is not subject to government approval because of widespread  deregulation of the telecommunications industry during the past  decade.

Consumer watchdog groups, however, responded vehemently.

"Ouch," said Russ Haven, legislative counsel to the New York Public  Interest Research Group in Albany. "The 50-cent phone call is really crossing the line. The public will be outraged."

And along Queens Boulevard in Kew  Gardens Friday, at least two consumers were. Johanny Nuñez, 23, fed a pay phone  quarter after quarter as she sought legal advice.

"I just put in, like,  $1 for 10 minutes," she said. "It's too much. I got to get a cell phone."

Her friend, Yolanda Disla, 27, of Jackson Heights, worried that  an unlimited amount of time meant "people are going to stay on  forever."

Besides New York, the hike won't take effect in New Jersey,  Connecticut, Rhode Island and West Virginia until at least next year, the company said.

Consumer advocates say deregulation of the telecommunications industry was supposed to lower rates. Yet earlier this  summer, Qwest Communications and SBC Communications also raised the prices of local calls to 50 cents.

"The people who end up suffering are low-income  people," said Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of  America in Washington. "They're less likely to have a phone at home or a cell phone. This is a failure of competition policy and a failure of social  policy."

Verizon also unveiled a plan to test 10-cent-per-minute local  calls in certain markets, including New York. Already, Verizon has a service in  Manhattan's Penn Station where consumers can make a 30-second short-distance  toll call for 25 cents.

"You can make that quick call to let someone know  soccer practice is over and the train is running late," Bonomo said. "You might  get a chance to make that call for 10 cents."