BELL CANADA STEPS INTO THE RING
By Adnews Staff
Toronto-based Bell Canada became the third phone company to announce lower-priced long-distance calling plans this week. Under Bell's plan, customers can call anywhere in Canada on weeknights and all weekend long for 10 cents-a-minute. Calls to the U.S. on weeknights and weekends will be 20 cents-a-minute. In addition, Bell will offer a 25% discount on calls to all destinations during peak hours on weekdays, and has reduce the prices on its international calling rates. Bell's plan will be launched next week. Advertising for the company is done by BBDO Canada and Leo Burnett Co., both of Toronto. AT&T Canada and Sprint Canada, both of Toronto, introduced their revamped and new long-distance calling plans this week as well. AT&T has extended its 10 cents-a-minute weekend calling plan to include weeknights from 7 p.m. Sprint is now offering free short calls and by-the-second billing. Under the free short call plan, if a customer calls a number and gets an answering machine or a wrong number they will not be charged for the call if it is less than 10 seconds long. Under the by-the second billing plan, customers will pay by-the-second after the first minute of the call and the call will not be rounded up to the next minute. For example, if a customer makes a three minute and five second phone call, they will be charged just for that time. The call won't be rounded up to the fourth minute.