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Talk of the bay

Verizon to customers making overseas calls: Sign up or pay up

By LOUIS HAU
Published May 30, 2005

There are all kinds of ways for a wireless carrier to promote a new international long-distance calling plan.

Print up glossy ads to insert in customer bills. Offer a slightly better rate for a limited time to those who sign up by a particular date.

Or, as Verizon Wireless has opted to do, more than double customers' overseas calling rates if they don't sign up for the new plan.

In customer bills going out this month, the company is touting its new "International Long Distance Value Plan," which offers substantial discounts on per-minute rates for a monthly fee of $4. For instance, the rates on calls to Mexico and Canada will be halved.

But if you don't sign up, or if you happen to overlook the short blurb on your bill explaining all of this, your rates on most overseas calls will automatically shoot into the stratosphere beginning July 1.

Calls to Mexico and Canada will skyrocket 145 percent from 20 cents a minute to 49 cents. Calls to many other overseas locales will leap 129 percent from 65 cents a minute to an eye-popping $1.49. (That would be $22.35 for a 15-minute phone call to Haiti or Hong Kong, for those of you keeping score at home.)

Verizon Wireless spokesman Chuck Hamby defends this sign-up-or-else approach, saying customers are more likely to use a new calling plan when they're provided with a financial incentive to do so.

"Our goal is to make it more convenient and affordable to use your Verizon Wireless phone for all long-distance calls," he says. "We created this new plan with that in mind."

[Last modified May 27, 2005, 17:42:02]