A collect call in the United States and Canada, known as a reverse charge call in the majority of the English-speaking world, is a telephone call in which the calling party wants to place a call at the called party's expense. In the past, collect calls were only possible as an operator-assisted call, but with the introduction of computer-based telephone dialing equipment, it is now possible to place a collect call without using an operator, which is called automated operator services (AOS) as opposed to Home Country Direct (HCD). Several companies offer services to place collect calls that compete with local service providers. Collect calls can be made from almost any public pay telephone in the world by following directions posted on or near the phone. Collect calling has been in constant decline since the advent of cellular phones and VOIP products such as Skype.
While Mother's Day has the highest number of phone calls, the most collect calls are made on Father's Day.
Other forms of paid communication, such as telegrams and mail, could also be sent as "collect".
Read more about Collect Call: Mobile Collect Call
Famous quotes containing the words collect and/or call:
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“What large children we are
here. All over I grow most tall
in the best ward. Your business is people,
you call at the madhouse, an oracular
eye in our nest.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)