The Federal Communications Commission has eliminated the old requirement that dominant local exchange carriers conduct long distance operations separately from their local access operations. The old regulations obviously don't make much sense in an environment where long distance has ceased to be a separate business, for the most part, and where all access providers routinely bundle access and long distance calling.
As a phase-in mesure, a&t, Verizon and Qwest agree to offer special rate plans tailored to consumers who use little long distance, for a period of three years. As most post-paid mobile calling plans all include bundles of calling including "local" and "long distance," the move allows the former regional Bell operating companies to reduce their overhead.
The change does not materially affect the way wireless and wireline calling is offered to the retail market. The issue isn't really long distance at all. Instead, the bigger issue is which servics, and how many servics, to buy as part of a single bundle, in the consumer market.
To encourage such behavior, Verizon recently increased the price of stand-alone FiOS broadband in some markets if isn't part of a voice or television bundle.
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