Jerry Leichter (LEICHTER-JERRY@CS.YALE.EDU) <leichter@lrw.com> (08/23/90)
All of you who complain that you local Telco is still charging for Touchtone - or justify charges for services like Call Waiting as needed to offset development costs and such - will be delighted with the rate increase that SNET has filed for. It's the first increase in eight years, and comes to a total of $86.4 million. (BTW, I've never been able to figure out what those totals are sup- posed to mean. Are they saying "$86.4 million extra in the first year? Each year, on average, for the next eight? Over the next eight years?") The increases apply to almost everything. Basic rates for residential custo- mers increase by anywhere for $.80 to $1.70; the current range is from $5.17 for "Select-A-Call" (no message units included, you pay per call) to $11.02 (Class III flat rate). (All the exchanges in the state are in one of three "classes", depending presumably on the number of phones in your local area or something like that.) Business rates will increase by $2.40 to $4.97; currently, they range from $15.61 to $22.38. One thing SNET fails to mention in its brochure - unless you look in the fine print - is that a number of exchanges are changing class. Surprise: Every one of them is moving to a higher (i.e., more expensive) class. A rough count seems to indicate that as a result of the changes, the majority of exchanges will now be in Class III, whereas previously a majority were in Class II. Here are some other changes. (Totalphone includes speed dial, call waiting, call forward, three way calling, and one other thing I can't remember: It was added after I got Totalphone on one of my lines and the only reason I found out about it is that I later added Totalphone to another - and now I can't find the new brochure! I think it also includes Touchtone. You can't get the individual services "unbundled" - except, it appears, for call forwarding, which the business office didn't tell me about when I asked.) Current New Touchtone Residence $1.85 $2.20 Business 2.13 2.50 PBX 3.12 3.70 TotalPhone Residence 6.58 7.80 Business 11.59 13.80 Call Forwarding Residence 2.84 3.35 Business 4.73 5.60 Non-listed # .57 1.00 Non-published # 2.08 3.05 !!! Add res. lstng .52 1.00 Add bus. lstng 1.09 1.50 Add nonlcl lst 1.09 1.55 Oper dialing free .75 Verify busy free 1.00 Interrupt call free 1.00 Calling card .24 .65 !!! Bill 3rd party .71 1.75 !!! Person-2-person 1.42 3.50 !!! There are many other increases e.g., residential FX lines go up by between $6.76 and $14.41 a month. On the plus side, in-state long distance calls are going down. The example they give of a "typical" call from Hartford to Stamford (about 60 miles, at a rather rough estimate) at daytime rates for 3 minutes goes from $.92 to $.78. Some "business services", including WATS and 800 and "some digital private line services" are also going down. Local coin calls remain at a dime. Jerry