Long-distance rates are about to go through more gyrations as American Telephone & Telegraph Co. proposed Thursday to raise its rates for interstate calls during weekend and night hours.
Weekend and night rates now are 60 percent lower than daytime rates, and AT&T filed a proposal with the Federal Communications Commission to reduce that discount to 55 percent.
The bottom line for the average residential customer who has a mix of long-distance calls made during daytime and evening/weekend hours will be an increase of about 2 percent on each monthly bill, an AT&T spokesman said.
The proposal was designed to get AT&T`s rates more in line with its costs in anticipation of an across-the-board decrease in rates of about 5 percent scheduled for June 1, the spokesman said. That rate cut will coincide with the FCC-mandated increase in customer access fees to $2 from $1 a month for residential and single-line business customers.
There will be no changes in AT&T`s Reach Out America discount program, the spokesman said.
Through that program, customers pay a flat monthly fee for a certain amount of weekend and evening long-distance calls.
AT&T said the change in rates would generate about $83 million in additional revenue and allow the company to earn its authorized rate of return of 12.75 percent on interstate services. AT&T said last year it earned 11.8 percent on interstate calls.
