AT&T;’s Latest Stealth Rate Increase Will Reach Out for Least Active Customers
If you are among the 80 million or so customers of long-distance giant AT&T; Corp., I have two words of advice for you: Watch out.
Why? Because the phone giant is raising rates wherever possible--often where the hikes are unlikely to be detected by consumers--to help offset its sagging consumer long-distance revenue and stabilize its falling stock price.
AT&T;’s latest hike targets its least active customers. Beginning July 1, AT&T; plans to increase its monthly minimum usage charge to $5 from $3 on six of its calling plans: Cash Back, Simple Minutes, One Rate, One Rate Off-Peak, True Reach and One Rate Off-Peak III. That means customers on those plans will always pay at least $5 a month even if they never make a long-distance call.
That increase comes on the heels of other recent hikes. On June 1, AT&T; enacted its third major price increase in 10 months for calling card calls. Fees for operator-assisted calling card calls jumped to $5.50 from $2.95 per use, and calling card rates rose to 69 cents a minute from 59 cents. AT&T; has also been raising its long-distance rates on various plans, though one of those efforts has been temporarily thwarted.
On June 1, the company overhauled its basic long-distance rates--its most lucrative source of revenue--without any advance notice to customers. The company raised most rates, lowered Sunday charges and eliminated the $3 minimum usage charge for customers not on a calling plan.
Consumer groups protested, saying the overall impact would be higher bills for tens of millions of customers. Stung by the response, AT&T; rescinded the basic rate increase almost immediately but vowed to institute some form of price hike after “further review of various alternatives.”
Legally, AT&T; can do whatever it wants with its prices because the Federal Communications Commission has no power to regulate long-distance prices.
But these increases are hitting customers at the same time AT&T; is making public promises that subscribers will soon enjoy significant breaks.
The pledge stemmed from a recent deal with the FCC that gives long-distance carriers a $3.2-billion yearly discount on access charges. As part of the package, AT&T; promised that it would not simply pocket the savings but pass it along to its customers through price cuts and the elimination of certain minimum use charges.
For AT&T; customers, the time seems right to shop around for better deals. That could mean simply searching for a better AT&T; calling plan or another long-distance provider. But beware of the fine print, because many phone companies make up for their lowest calling rates with exorbitant service charges and rates for other kinds of calls.
In the meantime, if you are an AT&T; customer, it wouldn’t hurt to bookmark the company’s new rate information site: https://www.att.com/rate_info.
PacBell Wireless Joins Free-Roaming Crowd
It’s been a long time coming, but PacBell Wireless and its sister companies at SBC Communications Inc. recently unveiled their first national flat-rate plans that eliminate long-distance and roaming charges.
Other wireless companies have offered similar plans for nearly two years, giving their customers the ability to use their wireless phones while traveling without incurring long-distance charges and pricey per-minute roaming charges on top of their regular rates.
The new PacBell plan can be used only with certain phones and has monthly fees ranging from $25 to $150, depending on the number of minutes included in the plan. Additional minutes of air time cost up to 35 cents each.
With PacBell’s entry, all of California’s largest wireless carriers now offer customers some kind of no-roaming, no-long-distance nationwide calling plan.
Cox, PacBell Will Reprint San Diego Directory
Cox Communications Inc. and PacBell now say they will reprint white page directories distributed last month that inadvertently included the names, addresses and phone numbers of about 11,400 unlisted Cox phone customers in the San Diego area.
The two companies also plan to retrieve 410,000 of the tainted books that PacBell had already delivered in some parts of San Diego County.
Members of the California Public Utilities Commission last week criticized the two firms for haggling over how much Cox would have to pay PacBell for the reprint, appearing to put monetary concerns ahead of the interests of the customers involved. The PUC is considering ways to bring more oversight to the directory publishing process to avoid further problems.
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Elizabeth Douglass can be reached at elizabeth.douglass@latimes.com.
