Support our troops

War is so profitable for business. And what's good for business is good for America. So why are these soldiers whining?

"The phone cards are a rip-off, I don't know how else to say it," said Spc. Stephen Wade, 25, of Los Angeles, a member of the New Jersey National Guard's 50th Main Support Battalion stationed at the base. "I get the feeling someone is making a fortune off us."

Another member of the unit, Spc. Jay Ruggiero of New York, calls prices to call home "absurd" and said soldiers are "getting screwed."

The target of their criticism almost always is AT&T, the once glorious telephone company that for decades has been one of the most important and largest employers in New Jersey.

At the root of the soldiers' unhappiness are prepaid calling cards that most must use to call home.

Here at FOB Speicher, most calls back to the states are made on pay phones from two white trailers marked with "AT&T Calling Center" banners. No other phone company has call centers on this or any base in Iraq.

To make calls in these centers, soldiers are prompted by an operator, dial an 800 number and enter a personal identification number from the card. Then a recording tells them the time remaining on the card.

That's where the problems can begin.

Some cards are marked in units. Others are marked in minutes.

In either case, the number of minutes or units advertised on the front of the card rarely represents actual calling time from Iraq to the United States.

[...]

A card advertised for 120 minutes provides six to 30 minutes, soldiers at Camp Speicher said.
  New Jersey Star-Ledger article

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.