ken@sharkey.cc.umich.edu (Ken Jongsma) (03/19/90)
This week's Business Week has an interesting Personal Business article
on Long Distance. Some of the highlights:
Long Distance rates have dropped almost 40% since 1984.
Most consumers cannot tell the difference between AT&T, MCI and Sprint
in terms of connection quality. Marketing is focusing on price.
On a 12 minute evening call, the following rates apply:
AT&T (No Plan) 1.89 AT&T (Reach Out Day) 1.42*
MCI (No Plan) 1.77 MCI (Primetime) 1.29*
Sprint (No Plan) 1.74 Sprint (Plus) 1.38*
* Volume discounts apply in addition to listed rates.
Telecom Research & Action Center (TRAC) publishes a business
($5/issue) and residential ($1/issue) newsletter that compares rates.
Their address is PO Box 12038, Washington, DC 20005.
TRAC finds that Sprint is almost always cheaper, but not always the
best choice. Saturday callers should use MCIs Supersaver plan. Longer
calls (10+ minutes) overseas may be cheaper on AT&T.
Promotions abound. MCI gives miles on Northwest or American Airlines
and offers members of the ABA a 5-10% discount. Sprint allows new
members to cash in Contental miles for credit on their Sprint bill.
AT&T gives a $10 credit if you sign up with HBO and vice versa. In
addition, most carriers offer to pick up the BOC conversion charge if
you change default carriers as well as offering a certain amount of
"free" calls.
[Comment: The new Sprint bill (mentioned in a previous digest) makes
it very easy to analize you bill and decide if your calling patterns
suggest a change in carriers. - Ken]