A Change in Cellular Charges?

Federal telephone regulators are preparing to let wireless carriers charge people for making calls to cellular phones, likely boosting competition with land-based local phone networks, Federal Communications Commission Chairman William E. Kennard said. Although use of wireless phones has risen dramatically, few people have fully replaced their land lines with mobile units. That’s partly because under current rules the phone owner pays both for calls made and calls received. Kennard, speaking at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Assn.’s annual conference in New Orleans, said he had studied so-called calling-party-pays systems used in Europe and was ready to move forward with a similar system for the U.S.