TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Calling Canada is an International Call?

Re: Calling Canada is an International Call?

Linc Madison (lincmad@suespammers.org)
Sun, 09 Jan 2005 13:49:52 -0800

In article <telecom24.10.5@telecom-digest.org>, <quickcur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> I am in CA. I have ATT One Rate Plan for my residence phone (not
> cellular phone). I joined this plan because once a ATT representative
> told me that, if I do not have a long distance plan, ATT (as a
> default long distance carrier for my local phone carrier) will charge
> me $3 or so every time I call 800 number.

If that's what the rep told you, the rep out-and-out LIED. It is
illegal for your carrier to charge you for calling 800 numbers.

> So I joined. The rates for calling everywhere in US is 10C/minute.
> Last month I called Canada. Now I got the bill and found out that
> this plan charges Canada call as international call and it is
> $1.32/minute.

Canada is a different country, so it is an international call.

Dialing 1+ instead of 011+ doesn't necessarily mean your call is
domestic.

> Is there anything I can do? Before I join, I asked the representative
> about Canada. He told me that Canada call is the same as domestic
> call. But I have no proof for that. And no one want to listen to
> that.

It depends on which plan you have. For a monthly fee of $1, you can get
calls to Canada for 6 cents/minute -- ironically enough, cheaper than
domestic long-distance on AT&T.

> Is there any federal regulation about Canada? Is that totally up to
> the phone company to define it as international call or domestic
> call?

There are federal regulations which require the phone company to define
Canada as an international call, because it is an international call.
The phone company is free to charge pretty nearly whatever they please
for the call -- anything from included in a monthly flat fee plan to
over a dollar per minute.

My suggestion would be to check out this web site:
<http://ABellTolls.com> and shop around for a better deal than AT&T is
offering you. Even 10 cents/minute for US and Canada is not a very
competitive rate.

For that matter, the basic "One Rate" plan isn't even AT&T's best
offering for domestic long-distance. You can get 9 cents weekdays, 5
cents on weekends, with only a $5 monthly minimum usage.

Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org
<http://www.LincMad.com> * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com
All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c)
This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3).
DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned.

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: George Mitchell: "Re: Real Election Reform"
Go to Previous message: Joseph: "Re: Calling Canada is an International Call?"
May be in reply to: quickcur@yahoo.com: "Calling Canada is an International Call?"
Next in thread: david_esan@hotmail.com: "Re: Calling Canada is an International Call?"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page