Lakewood : Phone Surveys to Be Mailed
General Telephone Co. will begin sending surveys Sept. 1 to 66,000 customers in Artesia, Bellflower, northeastern Lakewood, the western portion of Cerritos and a small portion of south Norwalk, asking if they prefer flat-rate calling to Long Beach or Whittier.
Dale B. Rycraft, district manager of community relations, said a public outcry last year caused GTE officials to back off from a plan to charge Zone Usage Measurement (ZUM) fees for calls to Long Beach while letting customers call Whittier and Pico Rivera for free. Under the proposed plan, some Lakewood customers would be charged a ZUM fee to call their own City Hall.
Lakewood is divided into four calling exchanges--Norwalk, Lakewood, Long Beach and Compton. Under the ZUM system, calls across one or two exchanges would be subject to a ZUM charge.
Survey results are expected to be completed in December and new calling boundaries implemented in late December, Rycraft said. After free calling areas are determined, ZUM charges will be 8 cents for the first minute and 3 cents for each additional minute for calls across two exchange boundaries.
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