I would say that domestic long distance is *almost *universally free here in America. If your phone is bundled with internet service it’s definitely free. If it’s via a cable modem it’ll be VoIP, if it’s a DSL (or Verizon FiOS) it’ll be a true dial tone telephone service. But either way, aside from international calling, there’s really no such thing as long distance any more.
But something to consider more is that probably less than half the population realizes this (especially older people). But 100% of them know that 1-800 means toll free.
Absolutely not, unless I wanted to use something like Vonage for long distance. I have a land line and DSL internet from AT&T bundled together on one bill. Long distance service is not included. I could buy unlimited long distance from AT&T for only $24 (plus tax) a month, but I can get long distance for 2.5 cents/minute (including tax) from another source, so I’d have to use about 1000 minutes a month to break even on that deal.
Wireless and VOIP customers have long distance service included usually. For landline customers, it’s an extra fee that isn’t always the economical choice.
Let me try to clarify things:
The vast majority of Americans, both home and business still have land lines. By this I mean POTS, not VOIP, not from your cable company. Just telephone service from your local phone company. Unless everyone else is getting a sweeter deal than me, long distance costs.
The vast majorty of Americans have cell phones. Long distance is free on cell pones.
A minority of Americans use VOIP. Long distance is free on VOIP.
Cell phone, POTS, and VOIP penetration vary by demographic. This being an internet forum this demographic is probably more likely to have cell phones, VOIP, cable company phone and less likely to have POTS.
Therefore, in any case, most Americans have access to free long distance. Most do not have it on their land line.
I have a very cheap VoIP plan. We are charged based on the length of the call. (No local/long distance distinction.) Since we use the phone very little, this works for us. $4 a month of penny charges here and there is much better than $30 for local only we used to pay.
Our provider does not charge us for 800 numbers.
So, we like 800 numbers.
People reject unlimited plans for economic reasons all the time. It has nothing to do with land lines or being out of touch of technology. I would have hoped the Dope would not have so many people that like to share poor stereotypes.
So, to the OP. No, not standard. Not in the least.
Nah, that’s not it, while at the same time, that is it.
Most people still have landline phones over copper from a telco.
Whether they pay for long distance on a per call basis varies widely. OK, a lot of people have VOIP and get unlimited* calling. A lot of people don’t. Those that don’t, will be more inclined to give their business to a company that pays the toll on the phone call. Whether they realize they are still paying for the call is a matter of great debate, but the fact remains, they still pay for this “toll free” phone call.
People may have cell phones with free* long distance. They may not want to have minutes come out of their bucket, as a luxury of doing business with a given company.
There is a great deal of psychology that goes along with a business having a toll free number. The phone company (or VOIP provider, as it were) will still collect a small fee for carrying that phone call, and the recipient will pay for that call in some fashion.
I will only point out that a business receiving hundreds or thousands of calls per month will get a better deal from the telco than an average joe paying for a handful of calls per month. Not unlike big businesses that pay FedEx $5 to overnight a letter when the average joe pays $50 for the same overnight service at what was formerly called Kinko’s
I just want to point out that toll-free numbers are surprisingly cheap. I have some incredible deal with CenturyLink for my tiny one-man business that gives me 3 cents per minute long-distance. I also pay $5 a month to have a toll-free number. I originally got it 10 years ago because local governments in rural areas sometimes had a policy that they weren’t allowed to make long-distance calls. These days my mother is the only one who ever uses it, but it’s really important to her because my father is still convinced that long distance costs $12 per minute and therefore won’t designate a long-distance carrier for their home phone.