At&T Pushes For Rate Hikes

With great fanfare last week, AT&T and the Federal Communications Commission announced that millions of telephone customers would see lower bills as the company passed on savings from a government-ordered reduction in the fees that long-distance companies pay to local phone companies.

But on the day of the announcement, AT&T also filed documents with the commission that said the company would actually be raising most of the per-minute charges on the basic accounts of millions of customers who make few calls, in some cases by as much as 163 percent.

Moreover, AT&T, the nation’s largest long-distance company, said this week that it would be raising the monthly fee for some of its popular One Rate plans, which charge single per-minute long-distance rates, by 66 percent, to $5 from $3.

Consumer groups said on Tuesday that AT&T, which controls 60 percent of the residential long-distance market, and officials at the FCC had misled consumers by failing to disclose the rate increases when they announced the rate cuts last week.

Commission officials said that they had known generally of AT&T’s proposed rate increases but that they were not troubled by them - and felt no need to disclose them - because the company agreed to send a letter to residential customers urging them to consider switching to lower-priced plans. While AT&T and other long-distance companies are required by law to file statements with the FCC when they adjust rates, the commission has no power to block the rate changes.

AT&T and FCC officials last week trumpeted as “historic” the company’s decision to drop its $3-a-month minimum fee charged to customers who make few or no long distance calls, which on any given month represents more than a third of the company’s residential subscribers.

But because the new per-minute fees go up every day except Sunday, consumer groups say bills will rise for many low-volume callers.