Big telecoms decry high costs of 'traffic-pumping'

AT&T says schemes that route adult chat and other calls made by its customers to rural phone numbers are costing it hundreds of millions of dollars and may force it to raise the price of its $55 unlimited-calling plan. With rural phone carriers able to charge high rates to connect calls to their networks, AT&T, the nation's largest phone company, says the ploys cost it $250 million last year. Most large land-line and wireless companies, including AT&T, Verizon, Qwest and Sprint, say they're being gouged by the practice — known as traffic-pumping — and they've asked the Federal Communications Commission to put a halt to it.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20080606/b_trafficpumping.art.htm