AT&T Hikes Fees by $40 Million

November 24, 2003
The nation's largest long-distance company will ring in the new year with a new fee affecting more than 10 million consumers.

Subscribers to AT&T's "Basic Rate" plan will pay a $3.95 monthly fee starting in January, 2004. In a notice to customers, AT&T also announced a lower rate for weekend state-to-state calls on its Basic Rate plan.

"The basic service is a default package for AT&T customers who have not selected a particular calling plan," according to Rich Sayers of consumer Web sites 10-10PhoneRates.com and Phone-Bill-Alert.com.

"While the new five-cent weekend rate might sound good, the $3.95 fee will result in a higher bill for many users," says Sayers. "Weekday rates continue to be quite high at 35 cents per minute peak time and 29.5 cents off-peak."

MCI hiked fees by $1 earlier this month on six plans in its Anytime and Select Savings service lines. Affected plans are MCI Anytime Advantage, Anytime Advantage Complete Option, MCI Select 200 (Advantage Option), Select Savings 300/ MCI Signature Savings Advantage Option, MCI Anytime 200 Instate and MCI Anytime 300/MCI Anytime Choice 300 Instate.

MCI is also squeezing more cash out of 10-10-220 users. 10-10-220 had heavily advertised rates of 99 cents for 20 minutes, then 7 cents a minute. Starting this month users get just 15 minutes for a buck then pay 15 cents per additional minute.

Sprint is increasing state-to-state rates on two plans in December and upping costs to call Mexico by 90% on one plan in January.

Effective December 3, extra minutes on the Sprint Solutions 100 plan increase from $0.10 to $0.12. For Sprint Solutions 300, extra minutes go from $0.08 to $0.10. Starting January 9, 2004, the rate to call Mexico bands 1, 2 and 3 with Sprint Complete Sense jumps from $0.10 to $0.19 each minute.

WorldxChange, a popular provider of discounted "10-10" services, surprised customers this month with a new $2.50 low-usage fee on accounts billing less than $3 of service. The new fee applies only to users who receive billing on their local phone bill.

For more details on current and prior rate increases, visit http://phone-bill-alert.com and http://10-10PhoneRates.com

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