JACKSON - Former Super Bowl quarterback Terry Bradshaw, major league slugger Mike Piazza and TV alien Alf would like you to believe that dialing 10-10-220 is the most affordable way to make long-distance calls.
And they might be correct, depending on where you call and how long you talk.
So-called "dial-around" plans like 10-10-220 are part of an unwieldy yet lucrative industry involving some 2,000 seven-digit codes, telecommunications giants such as WorldCom Inc. and AT&T and more obscure companies such as WorldXChange and PT-1 Communications.
In 1999, dial-around service accounted for 7.5 percent of the overall long-distance market and $3 billion in revenue, the Federal Communications Commission estimated. It couldn't provide updated figures, but an analyst said the numbers would be slightly higher today.
"This is a complicated industry," said Rich Sayers, who operates the informational Web site 10-10PhoneRates.com. "But it can be very profitable."
Simply put, dial-around calling means doing just that - dialing a seven-digit identification code assigned to a certain carrier that allows a caller to bypass his or her primary phone company.
A person might use a certain dial-around number to call, say, Brazil. Charges for most dial-around calls are included in the local telephone bill.
Dial-around is available only from home phones and some businesses, not from cellular phones.
The service has befuddled so many consumers in recent years that the FCC has investigated how it's advertised and whether consumers get enough information about rates, restrictions and where to call with billing problems.
The emergence of Internet sites including 10-10PhoneRates.com and SaveonPhone.com has also been a boon for consumers trying to sort out the confusion.
"People can beat the phone companies at their own game," said Sayers, whose Web site is cited by several nonprofit consumer groups and does not, he says, receive funding directly from any of the services it lists.
Mississippi-based WorldCom, the nation's No. 2 long-distance carrier behind AT&T, is big on marketing its primary dial-around service, 10-10-220. Through its Telecom USA division, it uses Bradshaw, Piazza, Alf and other celebrities in television pitches.
WorldCom estimates that 15 percent of U.S. households have made at least one dial-around call in the past three months.
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