At&T Customers Facing New Charge

AT&T Corp. is imposing a new monthly fee of up to 95 cents on its residential customers, joining other long-distance companies seeking to recover the cost of completing calls to local phone networks.

The nation’s largest telephone company imposed the 95-cent fee in April for its 45 million customers who subscribe to one of the company’s discount calling plans. AT&T has told the Federal Communications Commission it intends to charge its remaining 35 million customers a monthly fee of up to that amount, starting July 1.

MCI Communications Corp. and Sprint Corp. imposed similar fees earlier this year.

The fees begin to reverse a trend began a year ago, when federal regulators promised that deregulating phone rates would bring down long-distance prices. AT&T at the time cut its long-distance rates by up to 15 percent.

AT&T said in a May 1 letter to the FCC that it needs the fee because it’s losing business to so-called dial-around services, which offer lower rates to customers who dial extra numbers. AT&T pays local carriers a monthly percustomer fee regardless of whether or not its customers make any AT&T long-distance calls that month.