AT&T Ups Cost Of Home Phone Service 27-63%, But CUB Alerts Consumers To Low-Cost Plans That Freeze Prices, Protect Consumers From Hikes

CHICAGO, Jan. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Home phone service just got a lot more expensive in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs after AT&T increased its line charges by up to 63 percent, but consumers can avoid those rate hikes with three low-cost, often overlooked calling plans that are the best deal for most Illinois callers, the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) said in a consumer advisory issued Monday.

A CUB analysis shows that the prices of the Consumer's Choice plans, now under a legislatively mandated rate freeze for the next two and a half years, easily beat the cost of other comparable AT&T offers, by at least 45 percent. CUB designed the plans to save consumers money and AT&T was originally required to offer them as part of a 2006 legal settlement with the consumer group. Since then, the Consumer's Choice plans have been saving callers an average of $200 a year.

On Jan. 3, AT&T increased the line charge, the basic monthly fee customers pay to have home phone service, by $3 in each of the Chicago region's three "access areas." Customers in the Chicago Loop saw a 63 percent increase, to $7.76 a month. Those living in the rest of the city and nearby suburbs now pay $10.74 a month, a 39 percent increase. Customers in the outer suburbs now pay $14.21 a month, an increase of 27 percent.

AT&T also increased from $7.50 to $8 the monthly price of Line-Backer, an optional and largely unneeded service that covers inside wire repairs that happen on average only once every 20 to 30 years. The popular Call Waiting also went up from $7.50 to $8.50 per month.

" Chicago callers must feel like an ATM machine," CUB Executive Director David Kolata said. "The bad news is home phone rates have skyrocketed by up to 63 percent. The good news is that the Consumer's Choice plans are rate-hike proof and can help you save hundreds of dollars a year." 

Nearly three out of four consumers still use traditional, landline phone service either as their primary connection to the world, including 911 emergency service, or a reliable supplement to cell-phone service.