Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9502270035
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bell Atlantic said Friday that it will give customers a $27.50 credit if they sign up for either Caller ID or Caller ID Deluxe, two services that alert phone customers who is calling before they pick up the phone.
The credit, which is available only to those who have never subscribed to either of the services before, can be applied to a customer's phone bill or used to pay the full cost of Bell Atlantic's version of the caller display device, which is necessary to use either service.
Bell Atlantic is able to offer the incentive because of a new regulatory plan for the company that was approved last year by the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Under the scheme, the SCC no longer regulates how much profit the phone company can make but caps the fees for some services, eliminates the fee for touch-tone service and temporarily freezes rates for basic phone service.
"We've never done anything like this before," Bell Atlantic-Virginia spokesman Paul Miller said.
The company will recoup the cost of the incentive through monthly fees for the service, provided customers keep the service, Miller said. "We have faith in the service that when people try it they'll like it and they'll keep it," he said.
Caller ID, which allows customers to see on the display device the phone number of the caller before answering the phone, costs $6.50 a month. Caller ID Deluxe displays the name of the person calling as well as the phone number and costs $7.50 a month.
Bell Atlantic offers at no charge to all of its customers the ability to block the use of a Caller ID device to identify their calls by dialing *67 on a Touch-Tone phone or 1167 on a rotary-dial phone. The company also offers to Caller ID customers for free the ability to block such anonymous calls.
by CNB