graphic
News > Economy
Int'l phone rates to shrink
August 7, 1997: 5:21 p.m. ET

FCC says moves could save consumers $17B over next six years
graphic
graphic graphic
graphic
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The Federal Communications Commission Thursday took steps to lower international telephone rates, resulting in potential cost savings of billions of dollars for consumers.
     The regulatory agency plans to set new, lower benchmarks on international settlement rates -- the per-minute fees paid by domestic carriers to their international counterparts for terminating calls that originate from the U.S.
     The maneuver is an attempt to take advantage of a World Trade Organization agreement on liberalizing the global telecommunications market.
     "As a result of this order and the WTO agreement, we predict that the average price of an international call will drop from 88 cents today to 20 cents five years from now," FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said in a statement.
     The FCC estimated consumers will save more than $17 billion over the next six years.Back to top

  RELATED STORIES

FCC Chairman steps down - May 27, 1997
  RELATED SITES

Federal Communications Commission

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney




graphic

© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Advertising Practices.
Live Quotes automatically refresh, but individual equities are delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time. † - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Disclaimer
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.
Home | Contact Us | Advertise with Us | Corrections | Career Opportunities | Site Map
RSS | Email Delivery | Portfolio | Podcasts | Mobile | Widgets | User Preferences | Special Sections
| Magazine Customer Service | Download Fortune Lists | Reprints | Conferences | Business Leader Council