At least four rounds of increases in local telephone rates amounting to a doubling of costs for telecommunications can be expected over the next few years, according to telecommunications economist Alan Pearce. And the reason American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (AT&T) will give for the rate hikes is deregulation.
The restructuring of AT&T, the accounting changes mandated by both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Congress, customer premises equipment write-offs, and the loss of cross-subsidy between long-distance and local services will cost users more of their telecommunications budgets, Pearce told the Local Carrier Network Conference in November, 1981. This is an important development for libraries which have been relying on local telephone systems to interconnect libraries and/or branches sharing an automated library system. The current average rates of $3.00-4.00 per mile per month will rise to at least $7.00 per mile per month. The solution may be a much greater reliance on telecommunications hardware that makes it possible for terminals to share lines. A future issue of LSN will feature an article on telecommunications hardware.
