|
|
|
|
| ||||
| Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau |
 |
|
|
 |
FCC
> CGB Home
> Consumer Publications - Trends in Telephone Service
|
FCC site map |
FCC CONSUMER FACTS
Federal Communications Commission
Common Carrier Bureau
445 12th Street, SW Washington, DC 20554
1-888-CALL-FCC (voice)
1-888-835-5322 (TTY)
www.fcc.gov/cgb
TRENDS IN TELEPHONE SERVICE
- This report provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the telephone industry asked by consumers, members of Congress, other government agencies, telecommunications carriers, and members of the business and academic communities.
- Highlights from sections in the report on local competition, telephone rates, subscribership, international calling and toll-free numbers are shown below:
International Calling
- The number of calls made from the United States to other countries increased from 200 million in 1980 to 4.5 billion in 1998.
- In 1998, Americans spent about $14 billion on international calls. On average, carriers billed $0.59 per minute for international calls in 1998, a decline of 50% since 1980.
Local Competition
- The report shows incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) claimed 96% of local service revenue in 1998, down from 98% in 1997.
- Competitive Access Providers (CAPs) and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) reported $2.4 billion of local service in 1998, up from less than $200 million in 1993.
- Local service competitors are deploying fiber in their networks at a faster rate than are ILECS; they increased their amount of fiber in place almost five-fold from the end of 1995 to the end of 1998. By contrast, ILEC fiber in place at year-end 1998 was 1.5 times the amount in place at the end of 1995.
Telephone Rates
- Local phone rates have remained steady. The average monthly local residential charge for service was $19.87 in October 1999 as compared to $19.24 in 1990; for a business with a single phone line, the representative charge for service was $41.00 in October 1999 as compared to $41.21 in 1990.
Subscribership
- Twenty million households have been added to the nation's telephone system since November 1983. As of November 1999, 99.1 million households had telephone service.
Toll-Free Numbers
- There are currently three toll-free prefixes in use - 800, 888, 877 - with over 21 million toll-free numbers assigned as of the end of January 2000. Two new codes - 866 and 855 - are expected to be placed in service in April 2000.
- This report is available for reference in the FCC's Reference Information Center, Courtyard Level, 445 12th, S.W. Copies may be purchased by calling International Transcription Services, Inc. (ITS) at (202) 857-3800. The report can be downloaded [file names: TREND100.ZIP, TREND100.PDF] from the FCC-State Link internet site at http://www.fcc.gov/ccb/stats on the World Wide Web.
| last reviewed/updated on 02/13/02 |
FCC Home |
| | Search | | | Updates | | | E-Filing | | | Initiatives | | | For Consumers | | | Find People |
 Federal Communications Commission445 12th Street SW Washington, DC 20554 More FCC Contact Information... |
|
|
