[JeremyBarbosa]

To give an example of the cost, Plivo[0]: Make call: $0.0065/min Recieve call: $0.0025/min Twilio[1] Make call: $0.0045/min Recieve call: $0.0020/min Flworoute[2] Make call: $0.00833/min Recieve call: $0.0050/min

So double to triple the cost from some providers for just this feature sounds very expensive. But perhaps with large commercial pricing this difference shrinks.

[0] https://www.plivo.com/sip-trunking/pricing/us/ [1] https://www.twilio.com/sip-trunking/pricing [2] https://www.flowroute.com/pricing-details/

[im3w1l]

The person you are talking to costs way more than that.

[hyperdimension]

You are right IIRC for most companies; my DID provider does charge incoming (toll/toll-free differing)/outgoing (flat rate) calls different rates.

That being said, are we not talking about AT-and-freaking-T? :) Surely they'll've been able to work things out. I think, anyway.

[bigiain]

Yep. Surely the phone system costs for AT&T calling their own customers is so close to zero as to not matter even at telco scale, compared to the minimum wage they're paying the people on their end of the call.

(Also, isn't there some weird thing in the US where cell phone users get charged for _inbound_ calls? They might even make money on these...)

[rnotaro]

It cost less since they are not paying for the hold duration if they call you back when an agent is available.

I often wait 2-3 hours for a 5-10 minutes call.

[joncrane]

I expect that the hourly rate for the CSR dwarfs the cost of the telecommunications, and efficiently allocating resources and being more convenient for the customer vastly outweigh a few fractions of a cent per minute cost.

[mindslight]

You missed the rates for receiving toll free calls, which are generally higher than both incoming and outgoing regular calls. For example, Flowroute is $0.00975/min.