"Rich Greenberg" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Phil Terry wrote:

GTC GlobalConnect
Interstate 3.9c/min

Wrong. Its 2.9 c/m

Intrastate 8c/min

This varies from state to state. 8.5 c/m in GA.

USF charge on interstate calls 0% (according to their customer service
dept.; this is a very good rate)

They recently started charging a USF fee of $1/mo, only in months that
you have LD calls.


Thanks for the input, Rich. GTC is showing a 3.9c rate for state-to-state
residential long distance at the following Web pages:
http://www.gtctelecom.com/
http://www.gtctelecom.com/offer/strF...ntialplan.asp#

I could not find a 2.9c state-to-state residential rate anywhere on their
site. Could you please tell me where you see it? Thanks.

You're right that intrastate rates vary from state to state and that is a
good point--that's why I mentioned that I was using a specific state
(Florida) in my example. It would be impractical and confusing for me to do
a carrier comparison analysis for every state and list all the numbers in a
newsgroup post, though I'd be happy to do another example for anyone here
who wishes me to run the numbers for their particular state (or they can go
to my LD site and/or one of the other comparison sites and run the numbers
themselves, of course). Interstate rates tend to be the same across
states--at least the 48 contiguous states (though some carriers' plans are
not offered in all of the lower 48).

Rather than say it's standard practice to include intrastate rates in
advertised rates, I should probably have said it's a consumer-friendly
practice used by some companies where feasible (one intrastate rate could
not be advertised for all states, so intrastate rate ads either have
to be targeted to specific states or, in the case of online sites, can
include a calculator that gives the consumer the ability to plug in his
state to get his in-state rate). Some websites require a bit more digging
than others to find your in-state rate. GTC prominently displays the
interstate rate here http://www.gtctelecom.com/, here
http://www.gtctelecom.com/offer/strFrnt/comparison.asp and here
http://www.gtctelecom.com/offer/strFrnt/default.asp, but you have to drill
down to here http://www.gtctelecom.com/offer/strF...entialplan.asp to
find your in-state rate, though that is not highly unusual. It's actually a
bit more disconcerting that they don't even mention the existence of
in-state
rates until you drill down to there. Some other carriers sites will mention
up front
that they have "low in-state rates." Those who downplay their in-state rates
tend to have higher in-state rates, though not always. GTC's in-state rates
are not bad, so it's probably not a case of them trying to intentionally
mislead or hide information, and all carriers would rather tout their lower
interstate rates than their in-state rates.

Thanks for letting us know about GTC's $1/month USF fee for months in which
there are LD calls. It's disappointing that the GTC sales rep did not
mention that. Unfortunately for GTC, that is another strike against them,
though I don't mean to pick on a little company like GTC--I'd rather pick on
big boys like Sprint, MCI and AT&T who charge higher rates. :-)