technology
`
`Why Can't You Make a Collect Call to a Cell Phone?
`
`JUNE 30, 2008 7:00 AM ET
`
`Listen to the Story
`The Bryant Park Project
`
`Did you know that you can't make a collect call to a cell phone? Bob Sullivan of
`MSNBC.com tells us why, in the first of a regular series of one-question interviews.
`
`MIKE PESCA, host:
`
`There's an old terrible joke about being able to tell a phone from a submarine. We
`won't bore you with it. More to the point is the fact that you can't call collect into a
`cell phone. It's not something you'd think you'd have to use very often, but think
`about it. What if you get thrown in jail, you need to call a friend, your friend is one of
`those people who only has a cell phone? Or what if your cell phone dies, and you find
`one of the last payphones in America, and you need to call your friend? So it is time
`for the one-question interview, although I do reserve the right to follow up. Bob
`Sullivan writes the msnbc.com blog called Red Tape Chronicles. He knows the
`answer. Hey, Bob.
`
`Mr. BOB SULLIVAN (Blogger, Red Tape Chronicles; Author, "Gotcha Capitalism"):
`Hey, how are you?
`
`PESCA: Bob, here is the one question. I'm sure I'll have follow-ups, but here it is.
`Why can't you make a collect call into a cell phone?
`
`Mr. SULLIVAN: Well, if you'd think about it, when you make a collect call, the
`recipient call company, in other words, the person who accepts the call, their phone
`company is acting effectively as a bill collector for the caller's phone company, or the
`pay phone, or wherever that call is made. And that's a pretty complicated,
`sophisticated affair.
`
`And as I'm sure everybody knows, cell phone companies already have enough to bill,
`and that's a pretty complicated bill already. And they're just not set up to reach back
`through the chain and get the money from you and then pass it along to whoever - all
`the companies that initiated the call. So, it's really just a matter of setting up the
`billing system, and cell phone companies haven't bothered to do that.
`
`PESCA: I guess it's because there is not that much demand. So few collect calls are
`made. If there was a lot of money to be made, they'd probably set up the billing for it.
`
`Mr. SULLIVAN: I guarantee if there was the kind of money that made it pay, they
`would be doing this, but there isn't much demand. Collect calls, as you hinted at,
`would be an advent - just a proliferation of cell phones, collect calls are far less
`important. But they are important to some people. And there is a lot of discussion
`about prisoners, for example, in jail, and how they call home. And a lot of times they
`need to use collect calls. And if they have to call a cell phone, they have a big problem
`on their hands. But there is a workaround, as you, you know, wherever there is
`demand, people come up with some solution.
`
`PESCA: Yeah.
`
`GTL 1021
`IPR of U.S. Patent No. 8,626,118
`
`Page 1 of 3
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`

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`Why Can't You Make a Collect Call to a Cell Phone? : NPR
`
`Mr. SULLIVAN: If you involve a third party, eventually the folks from jail or anyone
`can do this, will call an 800 number and that company will relay the call to the cell
`phone for you. And of course, they will do the billing directly from a credit card, so
`that makes everybody happy.
`
`PESCA: Wait, how do you, the third party, somebody with a hard line, you call him
`and how do they get the cell phone person?
`
`Mr. SULLIVAN: That's right. Well, they simply set up a three-way call in. This is not
`something that you do private. There are companies that are set up to do exactly this.
`It's not too different from having a pre-paid calling card, which is really the best
`solution if you find yourself in that situation, to have a calling card in your wallet
`with five dollars on it or so...
`
`PESCA: Right.
`
`Mr. SULLIVAN: For any kind of emergency like this. And that's often how folks in jail
`will be able to (unintelligible) calling card. But there are companies that are set up
`exclusively just to call for you, collect calls, to cell phones.
`
`PESCA: OK. So our advice is, try not to knock over liquor stores. If you do, have five
`dollars on a prepaid calling card. Bob...
`
`Mr. SULLIVAN: Mom always said, if you do speed, have a calling card.
`
`PESCA: Bob Sullivan of the Red Tape Chronicles, author of the book "Gotcha
`Capitalism." We got you. Thank you, Bob.
`
`Mr. SULLIVAN: Thank you.
`
`PESCA: And that is it for this hour of the BPP. As always, I want to thank you for
`joining us and sharing strategies on what to do when you're in prison. We should
`have a recurring series on that called So You're in Prison. I'm Mike Pesca. We're
`online all the time at npr.org/bryantpark. This is the Bryant Park Project from NPR
`News.
`
`Copyright © 2008 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for
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`authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.
`
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