Using a pay phone to make an overseas call can be an awkward chore. You either have to dial a bunch of calling-card numbers or fumble with stacks of coins to pay for the call.
But Verizon offers an alternative on some of its pay phones: 25 cents for a one-minute call to many foreign destinations and up to 10 minutes for a dollar. That's comparable to what some calling cards charge, with the added convenience of being able to simply pop a few quarters into a phone to call family or friends in Santo Domingo or Stockholm.
Verizon started quietly rolling out the service last year in Florida and the Tampa Bay area and continues to do so in other parts of the country. Phones that offer low-cost overseas calls have bright yellow handsets and feature the names of Verizon and Phone 1, a Miami telecom company that offers a similar service elsewhere with SBC Communications. Of the more than 2,500 Verizon pay phones in Florida that offer the special rates, more than half are located in the Tampa Bay area, including some at Tampa International Airport, Verizon spokesman Bob Elek says.
Customers looking to call India, Nicaragua or certain other overseas locales are out of luck: One-minute calls for 25 cents aren't available for those countries, and a dollar will only get you a minute or two. For a full list of the pay phones' international rates, go to www.phone1.com/rates-V.html
