The Nation - News from Feb. 1, 1987

Nearly one in five low-income households in America do not have a telephone because they say it costs too much, a survey by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found. The group said this was evidence that the Federal Communications Commission’s policies “are failing to make available to all Americans affordable basic telephone service.” The survey of 816 households with annual incomes less than $15,000 found 26.5% did not have a telephone. Nearly three-fourths of them, or about 19% overall, said they could not afford it. And 40% of those homes without phones had dropped service after the breakup of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. three years ago, the survey found.