The cost of a local telephone call from a pay phone will require more pocket change beginning in September. SBC Communications Inc. has announced it plans to increase the price of local calls on pay phones from 35 cents to 50 cents to combat a growing financial gap between higher operating costs and declining pay phone use as consumers increasingly turn to cell phones.

SBC, the parent company of Southwestern Bell, said the price boost would affect 414,000 pay phones in 13 states, the Kansas City Star reported. Every phone will be programmed to charge 50 cents a call. Emergency 9-1-1 calls and toll free numbers will still be free.

In recent years, the pay phone business claims that the demand for pay phones has been hit hard by the booming wireless telephone business and the declining cost of cellular phones.

SBC is not the first regional telephone carrier to raise rates. In May, Qwest Communications International Inc. announced it would increase the cost of calls on its 96,000 phones to 50 cents. Bell-South said in February that it would exit the business altogether by the end of 2002.

SBC, the nation's second-largest pay phone provider, last increased its pay phone rates in 1997, from 25 cents to 35 cents.