Short Phone calls-- Charge a set up fee!

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Sat, 10 Sep 1994 12:37:54 PDT
From: Jim Opfer (via RadioMail) <opfer@radiomail.net>


Dave


There is an article in today's LA Times about how PAC Bell is asking the
PUC to allow a "set up charge" for calls.  This would make short calls as
much as five times more expensive.


Supposedly the reason they are doing this is because "american telephone
calls are getting much shorter"


Innovations such as voicemail, fax, pagers, and email are dramatically
abbreviating telephone calls.


Today, about 52% of the residential phone connections last one minute or
less, compared with 22% in 1982.


Interesting article claiming that the phone companies argue that short
telephone calls are more expensive to carry.


Jim