Phones Programs/Partners - MCI fee jump for mobile phones: why?

We live in the US, and use MCI. I travel to Europe heavily on biz, and have a UK mobile phone. We have an international calling plan that allows my husband to call the UK for 11 cents, terrific for us to be able to talk frequently.

Yesterday, we received a letter from MCI saying they are slapping on a surcharge for calls to international mobile phones and pagers. Our 11 cent/minute call now becomes 33 cents/minute - triple the former rate.

I don't understand why it costs MCI more to connect to a mobile phone than to a land line phone. Can anyone explain this to me?

Does AT&T have a similar policy, or is now the time to return to AT&T?

SD1K -

My guess is that it's because in some countries, the caller pays the extra premium for inbound calls to a mobile phone, not like the US, where the caller pays the same to a mobile or fixed number. My understanding is that the US system is the exception rather than the rule. Anyone?

Greg

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by SanDiego1K:
Does AT&T have a similar policy, or is now the time to return to AT&T?</font>

Unfortunately, most long distance providers (e.g., Sprint, AT&T, even Net2Phone) now have hefty surcharges for calls to mobile phone numebrs in certain countries.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by SanDiego1K:
I don't understand why it costs MCI more to connect to a mobile phone than to a land line phone. Can anyone explain this to me?
</font>

The US is the only country where a person pays to RECEIVE calls on their cellphone; anywhere is just like long distance--the person calling picks up the extra charges.

MCI never bothered passing through these extra charges, and have wised up. If you can find another carrier that is still absorbing them, good luck, but it won't last for long.

I know, it was great until it was free.