'Local Long-Distance' Phone Rates to Be Cut : Telecommunications: Utilities officials warn consumers to expect a blitz of confusing promotions.

‘Local Long-Distance’ Phone Rates to Be Cut : Telecommunications: Utilities officials warn consumers to expect a blitz of confusing promotions.

By MARTHA GROVES

Dec. 2, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN FRANCISCO —

AT&T;, MCI, Sprint and other phone companies, as expected, said Thursday that they will undercut by a sizable margin the rates that Pacific Bell and General Telephone will charge for “local long-distance” calls as of Jan. 1.

The long-distance carriers filed their rate plans with the California Public Utilities Commission, providing the first glimpse at how rates will shake out once that market opens to competition.

Details of the new rates were incomplete Thursday and comparisons were difficult to make. PUC officials warned that consumers should brace themselves for a confusing promotional blitz by the phone companies.

For example, Sprint promised a two-month promotional rate of 1 cent per minute for residential customers making calls to points more than 12 miles away within the same local calling area. That rate will inevitably climb much higher as of March 1, however.

MCI and AT&T;, meanwhile, weighed in with rates as much as 25% below Pacific Bell’s.

However, these lower rates will be offset for many customers by sharply higher rates for basic monthly service, which will continue to be provided exclusively by Pac Bell and GTE.

Some examples of the new rates: a three-minute call between Los Angeles and an Orange County location 32 miles away would cost a Pacific Bell customer 36 cents and an MCI customer, 29 cents. A 10-minute call between San Diego and Ramona would cost a Pacific Bell customer $1.16 and an AT&T; customer, $1.09.

AT&T;, MCI, Sprint and other long-distance carriers have historically been prohibited from offering local toll service, which has been the domain of monopolies such as Pac Bell and GTE. But in September, the PUC decided to open the market for local toll calls to competition, making California one of the last states to do so.

The PUC handed the local carriers a key advantage by dictating that callers would have to dial a five-digit access code to reach any other company.