telecom@bu-cs.BU.EDU (TELECOM Moderator) (01/05/89)
For the past nearly two years, Illinois Bell has given a one third discount on unit charges for local calls made between the hours of 9 PM and 8 AM the next morning. This is done obviously to encourage use of the telephone at times when the network is least busy. Effective on January 1, the discount period has been expanded to include all day Sunday -- actually from 9 PM Saturday straight through until 8 AM Monday. The way this is calculated is on the number of units used to place a call; not the cost of the units themselves. A call within your local calling area here costs one unit during the day, and .6667 of a unit during the overnight (and now Sunday as well) hours. A call that costs 6 units during the day costs 2 units at night or on Sunday, etc. After a given number of units are used, there is a further reduction in the price of the units themselves. Units range in price from 3.5 cents each to 5.5 cents each, depending on the number used in a month. Obviously during discount periods you use fewer units and it takes longer to cross the threshold where the cost of the units go down.