Called Home Lately 1-800-Collect Prior to 1993, collect calling was a virtual monopoly held by AT&T as people were accustomed to dialing 0 to place collect calls. MCI moved aggressively to insert itself into the market by launching 1-800-COLLECT that year. By dialing 1-800-COLLECT, customers could connect with an automated MCI system which would directly place a call to a designated receiving party for a fraction of the cost of the AT&T service for its operator-assisted collect calling. According to Advertising Age, 1-800-COLLECT went from concept to launch in less than three months From Wikipedia