ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 15, 1991                   TAG: 9103150167
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short


SOME LAKE CALLS WON'T BE LONG-DISTANCE FROM ROANOKE

Phone calls between the Bedford County side of Smith Mountain Lake and Roanoke no longer will go through long-distance telephone systems and will not need the 703 area code, beginning March 30, the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. said Thursday.

Roanoke customers calling Stone Mountain also will receive more favorable rates and the new dialing system.

Calls from the Stone Mountain area to Roanoke will be billed according to the distance of the call, the length of the call and the time of day. The rates will be about 80 percent lower than current long-distance charges, C&P said.

The basic charge for Stone Mountain residents will be $12.64 a month. Roanoke calls from pay phones at Stone Mountain will not be measured and will cost 25 cents.

Also, customers in the Cove Road and Garden City areas will receive new digital service starting Saturday, C&P said.

About 1,700 Garden City customers will have phone numbers changed to a new 427 prefix. Those numbers now begin with 342, 343, 344, 345, 981, 982 or 985.

Some 900 Cove Road numbers will change to a new 562 prefix from 362, 366 or 563.

The new prefixes will appear in 1991 telephone directories, which will be delivered starting March 30. The customers also will be able to subscribe to special phone services such as caller identification, call trace, repeat call and return call, C&P said. - Staff report



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