covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert 27-Oct-1989 0929) (10/27/89)
>The connection will be from Toronto Canada to Hong Kong in order to >take advantage of discounted Canadian toll charges. (Hong Kong to >North America and U.S. to Hong Kong seems to be more expensive). From >Toronto the information will pass into the continental U.S. Although I expected calls from Hong Kong to either the U.S. or Canada to be more expensive than the reverse direction, the assertion that calls from Canada to Hong Kong were less expensive than from the U.S. surprised me, since I knew that Canadian rates to Europe were drastically higher than U.S. rates to Europe. Canada has recently lowered overseas rates. Rates to, for example, West Germany are still quite a bit higher from Canada than from the U.S. Canadian rates to Hong Kong are only lower for the first minute; additional minute charges from the U.S. are lower. You will save money originating the calls from Canada only if they are fairly short calls. And unless you also need the data to be in Canada, too, anyway, or have private circuits, you'll lose that savings on the additional call transmitting it across the border. Here is the comparison: Canada: 4p-12a 8a-4p 12a-8a Don't forget tax. Canadian tax is significant: 19% (11 Fed, 8 Prov). 2.19 1.76 1.53 1.46 1.17 1.02 U.S. tax is only 3% Federal, and most states do not tax out-of-state calls. AT&T 5p-11p 10a-5p 11p-10a Notice the time differences. Canada 3.62 2.72 2.17 and AT&T are similar, but Sprint has 1.35 1.03 .81 reversed the peak and medium periods. Sprint And finally -- there are new digital circuits to Hong Kong. I've gotten 8a-6p 6p-12a 12a-8a some _wonderful_ connections on AT&T. 3.3666 2.5840 1.8445 Other carriers may have them as well. 1.2825 .9888 .7938 /john