Wary Consumers Stuck On Hold As Long-Distance Giants Wage War Never-Ending Promotional Blitz Creates Confusion Over Advantages Of Competing Plans

Baffled over whether to dial for dollars with the cozy Friends and Family plan? The no-frills Sprint Sense deal? The dependable-sounding True USA Savings package? Or, maybe, you’re just not sure whom to believe?

When it comes to choosing monthly long-distance telephone services, some Americans may be dialing wrong numbers, according to industry analysts who blame the current marketing war between long-distance companies for confusing consumers.

“By and large, you cannot tell what an individual call will cost,” says Samuel A. Simon, ” … until the end of the month” when you get your bill.

Counsel to the Telecommunications Research & Action Center, a Washington-based non-profit consumer interest group that has cost-compared long-distance services for a decade, Simon says the industrywide scramble to create bells-and-whistles discount plans for niche markets has distracted many ordinary residential callers from money-saving possibilities.

Other low-profile callers get so caught up in the rancorous advertising rhetoric of the big-three carriers - AT&T, MCI and Sprint that they put even the most basic decisions about long-distance service on hold. “There are savings to be had,” Simon says. “This is the time to go out and take a look at your options and choices.”

That may not be as daunting as it sounds. Granted, long-distance billing has never been straightforward. A survey conducted for Sprint recently found that 88.3 percent of consumers surveyed knew what they paid for a gallon of gasoline, 85.8 percent knew what they paid for a loaf of bread, but only 38 percent knew the per-minute cost of a long-distance call. More than a third couldn’t even venture a guess.

Those findings have become the centerpiece of Sprint’s new calling plan, Sprint Sense, a departure from traditional blind-side billing.

“Life is hard. There are enough things we have to deal with in our lives,” says Juanada Teas, a spokeswoman in Sprint’s Washington office. “We decided to do something about it.”

Sprint Sense puts the price tag up front with its flat-rate fee of 10 cents a minute evenings (7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) and weekends, and 22 cents a minute daytime, anywhere in the United States. (No minimums.) Customers who sign up by March 31 (800-746-3767) avoid the $3 monthly service charge and receive 100 free minutes.

“Seventy-five percent of the people make their residential longdistance calls after work and on the weekends,” says Teas. If you pick up that phone and talk for 10 minutes, you know how much it is going to cost you - one dollar. … Our whole thing was: Make this simple.”

Simpler. But cheaper? Teas says comparing Sprint Sense to AT&T’s and MCI’s plans is like comparing apples with oranges. John Skalko, spokesman for AT&T consumer long-distance, says it’s not: “Sprint’s two-tier calling plan extends the expensive time of the day. It used to be 8 to 5 … now it’s 7 to 7, at 22 cents a minute. We can beat 22 cents a minute on True USA. We can come close on 10 cents a minute, depending on time of day and the discount.”

AT&T’s True USA Savings plan gives a 30 percent discount on domestic long-distance calls for consumers who spend $75 or more a month; spending $25 to $74.99 earns a 20 percent discount; $10-24.99 gets 10 percent off. There is no monthly charge or sign-up fee (800-878-3872). AT&T says better discounts are coming in April.

But John Donoghue, vice president of marketing for consumer markets at MCI, charges that AT&T’s discounts are designed to reach out and confuse someone. “The majority of the market is still using AT&T - industry analysts say about 65 percent,” says Donoghue. “The strategy is to create confusion because when you’re confused, you stay where you are.”

Like AT&T’s True USA, MCI’s New Friends & Family plan is volume-based: Customers making $10 or more a month in calls to anywhere in the United States get a 25 percent discount from MCI’s basic rates, more than $50 a month gets 30 percent off; no fees or minimums. Call other New Friends & Family members and receive another 50 percent discount.

To cut through the confusion, Donoghue says MCI has started its Proof of Savings program. Consumers can call 800-624-7766 for cost comparisons between MCI’s and AT&T’s rates for numbers they call often. “MCI’s rates are always lower than AT&T’s,” he says, “and our discounts are always bigger.”

AT&T’s Skalko has no hang-ups admitting that that claim is “absolutely true.” He says it also is deceiving. “Their basic price is exactly one one-hundredth of a penny less than ours,” he says. “AT&T’s is 24 cents per minute; MCI’s is 23.999 cents.”

So what’s the bottom line? “The prices are not fundamentally different among the various carriers from the residential perspective,” says Bradley Stillman, legislative counsel specializing in telecommunications at the Consumer Federation of America, a coalition of 240 non-profit organizations. “What is different is the nature of the programs.”

The basic advice, says Stillman, is that consumers sign up for a discount plan rather than pay the high rate. “It doesn’t matter if it is `Friends and Family’ or `True USA’ or whatever it’s called,” he says. “They’re going to give you a better rate than any standard service.”

MEMO: See also sidebar which appeared with this story under headline “Long-distance deals”