Who carries the calls from a payphone?
The company carrying the calls from a payphone can either be the local phone company or a competitive provider, also referred to as an operator service provider. Operator service providers use the lines from your local phone company and lines from long distance companies to provide service to their customers. The decision of which company will carry the calls in a payphone is made either by the owner of the location where the payphone is found, or the owner of the payphone. If a competitive provider carriers the calls from a payphone, they will carry the local as well as long-distance calls. Most consumers won’t see any difference in local calls, although operator service providers may charge different rates for, or restrict the length of local calls. In addition, if a local call uses operator assistance, e.g., is charged to a credit card or calling card, placed collect, etc., the consumer will also notice a difference. How will I know? If you are curious about who is providing service
