Bell Atlantic Corp.’s Carrier Services has teamed up with Metrocall Inc. to launch a calling party pays numeric paging service.
The four-month trial service will be available to residents of the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas. Called “Free 2 Me Paging,” the service bills all people issuing a page for each call, rather than charging the user a monthly fee. Customers need only buy the pager from Metrocall.
Callers will pay 35 cents per call. They will first hear a recorded announcement notifying them of the call’s charge and to press the number “1” to agree to the charge before entering their message. The charge will then appear on a separate page of their Bell Atlantic monthly phone bill.
Bell Atlantic’s advanced intelligent network will collect the billing information and then route the call to Metrocall.
According to Metrocall Director of Investor Relations Paul Liberty, the company will begin its marketing and advertising push for the service in July.
“Free 2 Me Paging satisfies the consumer demand to eliminate a monthly bill, while guaranteeing reliable messaging services,” said Metrocall Senior Vice President Tom Matthews. “Free 2 Me Paging is particularly well suited to those busy families who might need to use a pager only occasionally or in an emergency.”
While other paging carriers have tested such a service and have reported “extraordinary” sales, some carriers balk at the idea, as a caller-pays service takes some control of the customer away from the paging carrier and places it with the phone company. Liberty, however, said this was not a concern for Metrocall.
“We have a great relationship with Bell Atlantic and I don’t think this can do anything but strengthen it.” he said.
The Free 2 Me Paging service may be purchased at any Metrocall retail outlet in the test service area for the next four months. After the four-month trial, Bell Atlantic plans to offer the service in the mid-Atlantic service region under the brand name Paging Party Pays.
