TRACNotes

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April 1 Rate Hikes to Affect AT&T and MCI Users - April Fools Day will be no joke for AT&T and MCI residential long distance subscribers who will see an increase in the surcharge applied to calls to mobile phones overseas (commonly known as the IMT, or International Mobile Termination surcharge). Click here for details on the MCI⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾ and here for details on the AT&T ^(iv)IMT increases by country. Additionally, AT&T business long distance subscribers will see an increase in their Administrative Expense Fee on that day. The fee will increase from .74% to .88% of total monthly usage charges. Click here for details.^(v) Finally, MCI Business Value Plus and MCI Business Value Plus International subscribers will see their state-to-state, toll-free, and calling card to the office per minute rates increase from 6.9¢ per minute to 7.6¢ per minute. MCI One for Small Business, MCI Anytime for Small Business, and MCI Business Value subscribers will see the cost of their calling card calls to the office increase to $1.25 per minute with a $1.75 per-call surcharge. Click here^(vi) for additional details on these MCI increases.

VOIP WATCH

Read the Fine Print Before Ordering AT&T VoIP Service - AT&T recently unveiled its new CallVantage Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) residential telephone service. Consumers should be sure to read the fine print for important details about the service before signing up. For starters, like other VoIP services, CallVantage depends on consumers' electrical power and broadband service to function. In the event of a power or broadband outage, CallVantage service would also be offline. Second, consumers' home security systems may not be compatible with CallVantage, especially if it depends on a phone line to function. AT&T advises CallVantage subscribers to "contact your security provider to make some arrangements," before disconnecting the traditional wireline phone service. Finally, VoIP services, including CallVantage, will not connect consumers who dial 911 directly to a 911 dispatcher. Instead, the call will be routed to a Public Safety Answering Point who may not have the caller's location immediately available. For more information on this issue, please click here.^(vii)

SPAM WATCH

Study Shows Spam Still Hurting E-mail Use Despite CAN-SPAM - Almost four months after the federal CAN-SPAM law took effect, spam continues to hurt users' confidence in e-mail, according to survey results released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. While a plurality of users say that they have experienced an increase in spam since the law took effect, the new regulations do appear to be having an effect on pornographic spam. Of those users who have received pornographic spam in the past, 25% of respondents reported getting less pornographic spam since January 1, compared to 16% who report getting more and 56% who noticed no change. Nonetheless, 29% of users surveyed reported that they now use e-mail less due to spam, compared to 25% who reported a reduction in use in a June 2003 survey. TRAC contributed hundreds of user narratives to the June report. Click here^(viii) to access the full Pew memo.

INTERESTING LINKS

FCC Main Page - http://www.fcc.gov

FCC Complaint Form - http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm

List of State Regulatory Commissions - http://www.naruc.org/resources/state.shtml

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©2004 Telecommunications Research and Action Center. TRAC grants unlimited rights to reproduce TRACNotes or any information contained in it provided attribution is given as follows: "Source:Telecommunications Research and Action Center. http://www.trac.org"

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