The company needs the links to avoid high access charges.

These access charges represent nearly half the cost of making a long-distance call.

Competition among providers is low, and access charges remain high.

Internet providers now do not pay access charges to the local phone networks.

What they probably didn't hear about was the extra access charge for using the "800" number.

Long-distance carriers now pay local companies about $25 billion a year in access charges.

In addition, they asked Federal regulators to raise local rates about $7 a month through an "access charge."

Once upon a time, the long-distance access charges made more sense.

The access charge was eventually set at $2 to be put into effect in two steps of $1 a year.

Users from outside the 415 area code pay an access charge that is about $5 an hour.