1800collect

1-800-COLLECT is a 1-800 number, owned and operated by Telecom USA, which provides fixed rate collect calling in the United States. The service was launched by MCI in 1993.

History

Until 1993, collect calling was a virtual monopoly held by AT&T. Though seen unbreakable, as people were accustomed to dialing "0" to place collect calls, MCI moved aggressively to insert itself into the market by launching 1-800-COLLECT. By dialing 1-800-COLLECT, customers could connect with an automated MCI system which would directly place a call to a designated receiving party for a fraction of the cost then being charged by AT&T for its operator-assisted collect calling. According to one report, 1-800-COLLECT went from concept to launch in about 11 weeks.^[1]

By 1994, New York Magazine reported, MCI had "stamped 1-800-COLLECT onto our consciousness with a mammoth marketing blitz" aimed largely at Generation X consumers.^[2]

Following the successful launch of 1-800-COLLECT, AT&T soon responded with a competing 1-800 phone number providing discounted collect calling, 1-800-OPERATOR.^[3] However, a sizable percentage of calls intended to be placed to 1-800-OPERATOR were from callers who misspelled "Operator" as "Operater". The numerical translation for 1-800-OPERATER (1-800-673-7283) was, at the time, assigned for routing to the MCI network which capitalized on the large volume of spelling errors being made by those attempting to place calls through AT&T's service by connecting them to 1-800-COLLECT. After several months, AT&T realized they were inadvertently directing a large minority of their business to MCI and terminated the 1-800-OPERATOR service, replacing it with 1-800-CALL-ATT.^[4]

By the time of MCI's bankruptcy 1-800-COLLECT business had fallen precipitously due to the growing market penetration of mobile phones and the decreasing popularity of pay phones, which had generated a large portion of the collect calling business. Operation of the service was subsequently transferred to Telecom USA, a small subsidiary of Verizon (which purchased MCI's assets). Though the service's robust advertising spend was terminated, it continued to receive a trickle of business at rates non-indicative of its early history as a discount collect calling option. In 2014 one caller, who "still associated the 1-800-COLLECT number with reasonable collect call rates ... so strong were the company's early ads", reported being charged $42.55 for a six-minute telephone call. ^[5]

Marketing

1-800-COLLECT advertising did not mention its connection to MCI in order to avoid confusion from persons who might otherwise believe they had to be MCI customers to use it, as well as to attract AT&T "loyalists" disinclined to patron an MCI service.^[6]

In 1994, 1-800-COLLECT became one of the first six brands to use banner ads as part of a marketing campaign, purchasing a flight of ads on hotwired.com.^[7]

The service's heavy spend on television advertising made 1-800-COLLECT ads, which featured celebrities including Phil Hartman and Arsenio Hall, a ubiquitous feature of the 1990s TV landscape in the United States.^[5] As of 2000, 1-800-COLLECT was being promoted with more than $160 million in annual advertising support by MCI.^[8]

References