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Long Distance Carriers Sneaking in Extra Fees, New Monthly Charges
Aired January 02, 2004 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little 'Business Buzz' right now. Take a close look at your next phone bill, you may find some new charges. What a surprise.
Sasha Salama has more on the story from the Nasdaq market site.
They are good at sneaking those extra charges in, aren't they?
SASHA SALAMA, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Carol, they really are. And maybe one more reason to start using your cell phone a little more.
In "USA Today," a story about how some of the nation's biggest long distance carriers are sneaking in some extra fees and new monthly charges. The biggest long distance phone company, AT&T right at the top of the list. Yesterday it started charging what they call basic rate customers, that's if you have no fancy plans of any kind, a monthly fee of $3.95. Add it up, that's almost $48 for the whole year. Now AT&T is cutting some of its basic rates on the weekend, but some consumer advocates are saying these higher fees really penalize people who don't make a lot of phone calls. So-called low volume callers.
BellSouth has levied a new fee as well, 99 cents on most of its long distance residential customers. And last month, Sprint started charging 12 cents a minute, up from 10 cents, to those who go over their 100-minute plan.
So definitely check your phone bills and don't be surprised if you see some extra fees on there.
COSTELLO: That's -- remember when deregulation was supposed to make our phone bills cheaper?
SALAMA: Yes, exactly.
COSTELLO: Didn't really work out that way, did it?
SALAMA: It hasn't. Slowly, slowly there are these new charges creeping in.
One interesting stock that we've got on our radar screen today is Boeing. Boeing is in the Dow Jones industrial average. And the news here is that NASA has extended a Boeing contract for an international space station. And the project is worth as much as $1.6 billion to Boeing. So we'll be watching the ticker symbol BA. It could get a nice bounce today on this first trading day of 2004 -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Sasha Salama, many thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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Aired January 2, 2004 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little 'Business Buzz' right now. Take a close look at your next phone bill, you may find some new charges. What a surprise.
Sasha Salama has more on the story from the Nasdaq market site.
They are good at sneaking those extra charges in, aren't they?
SASHA SALAMA, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Carol, they really are. And maybe one more reason to start using your cell phone a little more.
In "USA Today," a story about how some of the nation's biggest long distance carriers are sneaking in some extra fees and new monthly charges. The biggest long distance phone company, AT&T right at the top of the list. Yesterday it started charging what they call basic rate customers, that's if you have no fancy plans of any kind, a monthly fee of $3.95. Add it up, that's almost $48 for the whole year. Now AT&T is cutting some of its basic rates on the weekend, but some consumer advocates are saying these higher fees really penalize people who don't make a lot of phone calls. So-called low volume callers.
BellSouth has levied a new fee as well, 99 cents on most of its long distance residential customers. And last month, Sprint started charging 12 cents a minute, up from 10 cents, to those who go over their 100-minute plan.
So definitely check your phone bills and don't be surprised if you see some extra fees on there.
COSTELLO: That's -- remember when deregulation was supposed to make our phone bills cheaper?
SALAMA: Yes, exactly.
COSTELLO: Didn't really work out that way, did it?
SALAMA: It hasn't. Slowly, slowly there are these new charges creeping in.
One interesting stock that we've got on our radar screen today is Boeing. Boeing is in the Dow Jones industrial average. And the news here is that NASA has extended a Boeing contract for an international space station. And the project is worth as much as $1.6 billion to Boeing. So we'll be watching the ticker symbol BA. It could get a nice bounce today on this first trading day of 2004 -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Sasha Salama, many thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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