Charge to Ring

Charge the caller $1.25 to make anyone's telephone ring, unless the telephone call is accepted. The person whose telephone rings will receive $1.00, leaving $0.25 for the telephone company and the government. A phone call will be deemed accepted if any of the following are true:

1. The parties talked for more than 3 minutes.
2. The caller was returning a phone call (had been called by the callee within the last 30 days)
3. The phone call is returned by the callee (within the next 30 days)
4. The caller is explicitly whitelisted (and not blacklisted). Furthermore, the disposition of any telephone call or number can be changed via an internet tool (blacklist this phone, always make them pay, never make them pay, etc.)

This scheme would have several advantages:

1. It is clearly feasible using existing technology.
2. It does not block any important calls, since those are always worth $1.25.
3. It would make robo-callers pay such large fees that they would hardly bother, and it would be difficult to cheat by using a variety of telephone numbers, etc.
4. It could be rolled out state-by-state, country-by-country; initially, calls that originate outside of the deployed area could just be accepted (or rejected if the person chooses that option), but those would generally be more expensive.
5. The technology would easily be financed via the $0.25 fee for the telephone company for all "rejected" calls.
6. It would also reduce the usage of telephone company resources for truly important calls.