AT&T AGREES TO CUT LONG-DISTANCE RATES.Byline: The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Residential long-distance telephone rates will fall significantly in the next several years under a new plan negotiated by AT&T Corp. and the Federal Communications Commission Federal Communications Commission (FCC), independent executive agency of the U.S. government established in 1934 to regulate interstate and foreign communications in the public interest. , officials said Saturday. AT&T, the nation's largest provider of long-distance service, said it would cut residential rates by $500 million in the year beginning July 1, the first substantial cut in long-distance charges in the 1990s. That translates into reductions in residential long-distance bills of 5 percent to 15 percent, the company said. MCI Communications This article is about MCI before it merged with WorldCom. For other uses, see MCI. MCI Communications was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and and Sprint, the two other major long-distance carriers, are expected to follow but have not yet announced how large their reductions would be, FCC (1) (Federal Communications Commission, Washington, DC, www.fcc.gov) The U.S. government agency that regulates interstate and international communications including wire, cable, radio, TV and satellite. The FCC was created under the U.S. officials said. The rate reductions are the last major piece of a complex compromise hammered out in the past several weeks in intense negotiations between telecommunications lobbyists and FCC officials. The regulatory agency regulatory agency Independent government commission charged by the legislature with setting and enforcing standards for specific industries in the private sector. The concept was invented by the U.S. is to issue new rules this week that will begin to change the economics of the nation's telephone business. It will also create a multibillion-dollar fund to connect schools, libraries and health-care centers to the Internet. Reed Hundt, the FCC chairman, called the pledge by AT&T to cut household long-distance charges ``a huge breakthrough.'' ``We have been in a fire fight with AT&T behind closed doors, and now the smoke has cleared,'' Hundt said in an interview. He said that over the next five years, after the major carriers reduced their rates, 85 percent of U.S. households would see their telephone bills go down and that rates for the other 15 percent would remain about where they are today. The rate reductions by AT&T will apply to households that do not subscribe to Verb 1. subscribe to - receive or obtain regularly; "We take the Times every day" subscribe, take buy, purchase - obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction; "The family purchased a new car"; "The conglomerate acquired a new company"; a discount package for long-distance usage, roughly half of AT&T's 75 million customers. The cost of long-distance calls placed during the day and evening will fall by 5 percent, while late-night and weekend charges will decline by 15 percent, the company said. Hundt estimated long-distance charges would fall by a total of $30 billion in five years, with $17 billion of the benefit going to businesses and the rest to residential consumers. AT&T and the other long-distance companies will get a windfall windfall An unexpected profit or gain. An investor holding a stock that increases greatly in price because of an unexpected takeover offer receives a windfall. as a result of the broader plan that the communications commission Since 2001 the Chairman has been ex officio the Minister for Home Affairs. External links
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