pf@ti-csl.csc.ti.COM (Paul Fuqua) (05/17/88)
Date: Monday, May 16, 1988 1:03pm (CDT) From: cck%COMPUTING-MATHS.CARDIFF.AC.UK at MITVMA.MIT.EDU (C Carmock) Subject: TOLLS/LOCAL CALLS [TELECOM Digest V8 #79] I think Chicago is the only area which has mandatory measured service, but it is fairly reasonable. --jsol] "Reasonable" is of course a relative term. My girlfriend lives in Willowbrook (312-986, right in the middle of the disaster area), and pays $21.95 flat-rate for a quite small local calling area (Westmont, Hinsdale, Darien), and message units for anything beyond that. In Dallas (214-340), I pay $14.95 flat-rate to talk to the entire city and most close suburbs, and there are no local message-unit calls. The closest equivalent is "Economy Service," which is a smaller monthly rate and a charge per call after the 25th local call. On a different note, my new phone books arrived, and on each page is a large notice that about two dozen prefixes will require the 817 area code after sometime in August, but will still be LOCAL calls. I recognise a couple of the exchanges (263, 265) as metro exchanges, but my sister in Grapevine has metro service (817-481), and her exchange isn't listed. I haven't checked, but since she has GTE service, the 817-local-call arrangement may be Bell-only. pf Paul Fuqua Texas Instruments Computer Science Center, Dallas, Texas CSNet: pf@csc.ti.com (ARPA too, eventually) UUCP: {smu, texsun, im4u, rice}!ti-csl!pf