It’ll Cost Less to Reach Out, Touch Someone

AT&T;’s rates for long-distance calling within California will drop 7.7% Monday--the result of an order that state-imposed savings from reduced connection charges paid to local phone companies be passed on to customers.

The $128.5-million reduction will lower the cost of a prime-time, five-minute call between Los Angeles and San Francisco, via AT&T;, from $1.93 to $1.77. The same call placed between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. will drop from $1.44 to $1.32, and the rate for calls from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. and on weekends and holidays will become 88 cents instead of 96 cents.

With the new rates, the cost of a Los Angeles-San Francisco call over AT&T;’s network in the two years since the breakup of the Bell System will have dropped 27%, from $2.42 to $1.77, the company said.

A similar call between Los Angeles and San Diego will drop from $1.66 to $1.50 during prime time, falling to $1.12 during evening hours and 75 cents at night and on weekends and holidays.

The reduction also applies to AT&T; Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) and toll-free calling. The private-line rate will drop 1.8%.

The Public Utilities Commission earlier ordered Pacific Bell to reduce the so-called access charges that it levies against all long-distance carriers for originating and completing their intrastate calls. But, the PUC added, these savings must be passed on to consumers in the form of lower long-distance rates.

AT&T; said intrastate access charges now represent 71% of its cost of handling a call.