The way it worked was the call was picked up by the regional Bell company switching station which recognized it by a Carrier Identification Code, or CIC, assigned to MCI, in this case 022. The call was then routed over MCI's network to one of its 50 or so 900-line clients. The law required that the caller be forewarned that there would be a per-minute charge, usually two-to-five dollars a minute. Then the call was routed to a “phone mate.” The average caller would have his “needs” fulfilled in about eight minutes, generating a charge on his next phone bill of perhaps $24.
In 90s money!
