covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert 09-Oct-1990 0003) (10/09/90)
The Massachusetts DPU has approved an extremely strange set of rate changes for New England Telephone. Unlimited residence rates are increased about $3 per month; rates for measured residence service are increased $1.50 per month plus the elimination of the 30 message unit ($0.0898 x 30 = $2.69) allowance. Residential Touch-Tone is increased from $0.58 to $0.98 per month. The filing proposed no increase in business rates; I'm not sure what was approved. Local calling areas for some (but not all) towns were increased slightly, mostly to make sure that adjacent towns were more likely (but not always) to be local. But the really strange stuff happened with intra-LATA toll. Massachusetts has two LATAs served by New England Telephone: the western LATA (413) and the eastern LATA (617-508). Previously, toll rates within both LATAs were the same. There were the following mileage bands and rates: Day Evening Night 0-10 .19 .09 .12 .05 .07 .03 11-14 .26 .12 .16 .07 .10 .04 15-19 .32 .14 .20 .09 .12 .05 20-25 .38 .15 .24 .09 .15 .06 26-33 .43 .17 .27 .11 .17 .06 34-43 .48 .19 .31 .12 .19 .07 44-55 .51 .20 .33 .13 .20 .08 56-70 .53 .21 .34 .13 .21 .08 71-85 .54 .22 .35 .14 .21 .08 86-up .55 .23 .35 .14 .22 .09 These rates (plus a .44 surcharge) continue to apply unchanged to calls from coin phones (sent paid) and charged to calling cards. They also apply (with higher surcharges) to all other types of operator assisted calls. But here's where it gets weird. For calls dialled from residence phones, the 15-19 band becomes 15-up, so there is a significant rate reduction for calls over 19 miles. But business lines get a better deal. Regardless of distance, they pay one cent per message plus 13.5 cents per minute (day), 7 cents (evening), and 5.1 cents (night). For Boston customers, where everything within 15 miles is local, this is quite a significant reduction, especially for short calls (like telemarketing). Now, to get weirder. In the western LATA, direct dialled calls from both residence and business phones are charged at one cent per message plus 5.5 cents per minute peak (9A-9P) and 3.6 cents per minute off-peak, regardless of distance. Note that with residence message units at 8.98 cents and business message units at 11.1 cents (for five minutes) this makes short toll calls cheaper than local calls! Intra-LATA WATS lines are eliminated. john