MCI Plans to Cut Rates Up to 11%

WASHINGTON â€”  MCI Communications, the nation’s second-largest long-distance telephone company, said Thursday that it plans to restructure rates on July 1, including rate reductions of up to 11% for residential and business services.

And American Telephone & Telegraph, the largest long-distance company, will reduce its rates for out-of-state calls by 5.6% on Saturday in compliance with a Federal Communications Commission order. Other long-distance companies said they are considering similar adjustments.

5% to 35% Discount

MCI travel-card rate changes include a 5-cent-per-call increase, a higher first-minute rate and decreases in most additional minute rates. MCI said its new rates are designed to give customers a 5% to 35% discount, compared to AT&T; interstate rates for calls inside the United States, including credit-card calls.

Most customers will see an overall reduction in their MCI phone bill.

The difference between MCI and AT&T; will be 15% for a typical MCI WATS customer and 5% to 20% for direct-dialed international calls.

AT&T;’s international rates to 88 countries also go down Saturday by as much as 6.6%. MCI volume discounts are also being adjusted.

Callers making more than $20 worth of calls a month will get a 2% discount; those with a bill topping $100 will receive a 5% reduction and a 9% discount will be given to those making $200 worth of calls a month. The discounts now are slightly higher.

MCI said it would also:

- Eliminate monthly fees for customers who have a device that automatically dials MCI access numbers and provides account billing services if those customers have bills of more than $200 a month. MCI calls this service Advantage.

- Reduce MCI WATS charges for customers who use more than 15 daytime hours of service a month.

- Increase some evening, night and weekend MCI WATS rates.

Carol A. Huff, Washington public affairs manager for GTE Corp. which operates the Sprint long-distance service, said the company will “obviously do whatever it has to do to remain competitive.� She said the company is reviewing its options now.

To Remain Competitive

Al Martin, senior vice president for marketing and sales for Allnet, a Chicago-based long-distance company, said “you can expect that Allnet will make an adjustment as well. We want to remain competitive.�

MCI gave these examples of rate changes, which it called representative.

A one-minute daytime call from Washington to Los Angeles will cost 53 cents, compared to a current charge of 58 cents.

A call from New York to San Francisco on the weekend, lasting 10 minutes, would be 11 cents cheaper, dropping from $1.82 to $1.71.

It said the average per-call rate reduction will be 4.2%.