900 numbers used to have enormous fees associated with them – $5 minute or more.
They largely don’t exist any more.
Read this:
In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled against 900 numbers that provided adult services, killing businesses in that space. Some migrated to 800 numbers.
“The phone companies didn’t like to be associated with the ‘adult’ part,” said Eli Noam, a professor of finance and economics at the Columbia Business School. “The phone companies were politically sensitive, and politicians didn’t like this.”
Then in 1993, the Federal Trade Commission created a rule that made companies disclose the cost at the beginning of a call.
Along with these policies, Noam said companies were also squeezed (of course) by the rise of the internet in the ’90s. “When you could get all this information for free, why pay?” he said. “They were overcome by the better technology.”
In one of the final major blows to the industry, AT&T announced in 2002 that it would no longer provide billing and collection services for 900 numbers. By 2012, Verizon had become the last carrier that supported 900 numbers.