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International Collect Call Pricing

Pricing a Collect call is more involved than pricing ordinary dialled direct, or operator connected calls.

The following table shows some of the elements involved in pricing International Calls. The figures (guidelines only - any resemblance to accuracy is accidental) indicate the costs involved, relative to those of direct dialled calls.

Cost	Description	Direct Dialled	Operator Connected	Collect
Cost	Description	Direct Dialled	Operator Connected	Method 1	Method 2	Direct
Operator costs	Cost of operator, approx. 60 seconds for average (non collect) operator connected call.	0	1	1.5	3	1.2
Call Set up costs	The share of equipment costs (capital, operating and maintenance) that can be attributed to setting up an individual call. This includes local and destination equipment, operator costs, and cable and satellite fees.	1	22	33	45	27
Local Duration costs	The share of equipment costs (capital, operating and maintenance) that can be attributed to maintaining a connection at the originating end.	1	2	2	2	1
Cable and satellite fees	Costs attributable to lease of satellite routes and/or international cables while call is in progress.	1	1	1	1	1
Destination duration costs	The share of equipment costs (capital, operating and maintenance) that can be attributed to maintaining a connection at the destination end.	1	1	1	2	2
International Settlements	Originating carrier's share of the revenue generated by the call (collected by the destination carrier if collect)	*	*	4	6	3
International Settlements		* Originating carrier retains all remaining revenue after paying other expenses - depends on call charges.
International Settlements	Destination carrier's share of the revenue generated by the call (collected by the destination carrier if collect)	1	1	*	*	*
International Settlements		* Destination carrier retains all remaining revenue after paying other expenses - depends on call charges.
Failed calls	Percentage of calls failing to generate revenue for any reason. e.g. no reply, lines busy, charges refused, wrong numbers, malicious calls (on direct services).	1%	10%	20%	20%	25%
Failed calls		Note that even if a call fails, a settlement charge may still have to be paid, based on the number and duration of the attempts.
Disputes	Call charges disputed by the billed customer.	1	2	12	10	10
IBS	Costs incurred at the International Billing Systems to process billing records.	0	0	2	0	0
Total time taken (in seconds) to connect (assume answer 5 seconds after dialling)		10	70	100	200	100

With the different settlement rates the duration cost of a collect call is about 4 times that of a directly dialled call. Additionally, the failure rate is much higher, and most of these failures are treated, as far as settlements are concerned, as successful direct dialled calls.

Connection Methods
Method 1	Customer gives call details to operator in originating country. The originating operator books and connects the call. This operator is responsible for controlling the call. The billing record is sent to the destination carrier's IBS for processing.
Method 2	Customers call their international operator (originating operator) who records the call details. Call details are passed to the destination operator by the originating operator. The destination operator connects the call. This operator is responsible for controlling the call. The destination country equipment generates a billing record, which goes on the call recipients bill.
Direct	The customer dials directly to the destination operator, usually using an international freephone number. The Destination operator books and connects the call, as for method 2. This operator is responsible for controlling the call. The originating country has no record of the call.

Controlling the call

Establish the final connection
Check that the charges are accepted
Time the call
Check the quality of the connection
Prepare a billing record
The billing record has to go through the charging administration's billing system.