richarbm@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan Richardson) (02/08/91)
Having just recently moved to Indiana from Illinois, I received my first GTE bill today and found some puzzling line items, including: Interstate Access Charge to Mar 07-91 3.50 Intrastate Access Charge to Mar 07-91 2.88 While not the definitive expert on the subject, I thought that AT&T, as my default long distance carrier, paid the access charges to GTE. I did not think that the customer was charged an access charge as well. A phone call to the GTE billing office got me nowhere: "This is because of equal access -- you pay this to get access to the long distance carrier of your choice." A phone call to the AT&T billing office left the representative and his manager as confused as I was. My question is this: Is there a case where the residential customer must also pay access charges? I never saw this charge on my Illinois Bell bill. Is this just a case of poor labeling on the bill by GTE? Bryan Richardson richarbm@mentor.cc.purdue.edu AT&T Bell Laboratories and, for 1991, Purdue University Disclaimer: Neither AT&T nor Purdue are responsible for my opinions.