ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 14, 1995                   TAG: 9507150022
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TROUTVILLE, SALEM GET PHONE LINK

Phone customers in Salem and Troutville will be able, beginning Aug. 1, to call each other without having to pay long distance rates or dial the area code with the local number.

The State Corporation Commission has approved extended local calling, which eliminates toll charges for calls between the two communities, the Roanoke & Botetourt Telephone Co. said Thursday.

Customers in the company's Troutville exchange, where phone numbers carry the prefix 992 or 966, approved the local-calling plan 51 percent to 49 percent in a mail ballot. A large minority of the exchange's 4,739 customers - 44 percent - did not vote.

A vote by Salem phone customers was not required by state regulations because their bills will not increase more than 5 percent under the plan.

When the plan takes effect next month, residential flat-rate customers in the Troutville exchange will see their base phone rate increase $3.50 a month. Business phone customers in Troutville will pay a monthly base rate that is $5.25 higher.

The base rates in Salem will go up 35 cents a month for residential customers and $1.26 a month for business customers. 


 by CNB