With AT&T, press End after 30 seconds or lose a minute

Christina Bonnington’s recent story on Wired.com, it’s that you should look for this provision. Otherwise you might be getting charged for airtime when you’re not even connected to another user. This example involves AT&T GoPhone, which starts charging for calls after 30 seconds. That’s not 30 seconds after connection to another party, but rather 30 seconds after you press the Send button. That might appear a bit limiting, and in many ways it is. But I don’t think there’s reason for outrage here. While consumers would appreciate AT&T being more up-front about this issue, they do at least make it clear in their customer agreement. It’s not as though they’re imposing this limitation with no indication whatsoever. That said, you might want to start hanging up before the 30 second mark when you’re making a call. This can be a pain when the call takes some time to connect, but you can always place the call again. It might be annoying for the other party, but what’s more important, the nerves of the person on the other side of the line, or your dime? ]]>