Graph showing decline of the cost of a phone call: following a fairly steady downward trend starting at around $1 a minute in 1950 and ending at below $0.25 a minute by 1994.

Data Source: Federal Communications Commission, Statistics of Common Communications Carriers, 1994. (Graph: Peter Wagner, 2014)

This graph originally appeared in Today the FCC dragged the prison telephone industry kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Rates are based on per minute cost, in 2013 dollars, of a 10 minute call from New York City to Philadelphia at the night/weekend rate, 1950-1944.

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