Customers Can Save $10 a Month
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon customers in California now have a new option available in the Verizon Freedom suite of packages and can further trim their monthly bill by also ordering either Verizon Online DSL Internet Service, Verizon FiOS Internet Service or DIRECTV® entertainment service, or by linking their home and Verizon Wireless bills.
Verizon Freedom Unlimited is the newest addition to the Freedom portfolio.
Like the original Freedom calling plans, Verizon Freedom Unlimited includes unlimited direct-dialed local, regional toll and domestic long-distance calling, and the most popular calling features such as caller ID and Call Waiting. And at $54.95, the new plan costs $5 less per month than the original Verizon Freedom plan. Home Voice Mail and unlimited calling to Canada are not included in the new plan. Customers who desire unlimited calling to Canada, or more robust calling features, such as Home Voice Mail, or both, are still best served by the original Verizon Freedom packages. They offer between five and 14 value-added services, including Home Voice Mail and calling to Canada. With the new plan, customers have their choice of up to three calling features. Calls to Canada will be billed based upon the customer’s choice of international calling plan.
In addition, customers qualify for a $5 discount off the local calling portion of the package if they order some form of a bundle, including the addition of Verizon Online DSL; dial-up Internet access (billed on the Verizon bill); DIRECTV services purchased through Verizon; Verizon FiOS Internet service in areas served by Verizon’s innovative fiber-to-the-premises project; or who choose the ONE-BILL® option to include their Verizon Wireless billing on their regular Verizon bill.
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SBC Communications, the nation’s
second-largest telephone company, will eliminate 10,000 jobs by the end of next year, according to a filing Friday with securities regulators.
The cuts will amount to 6.1 percent of SBC’s workforce of 165,000 employees and will come through attrition and layoffs, the company said. They come on top of 7,000 jobs SBC plans to cut this year as well.
The company did not say which divisions would be directly affected, but an SBC spokesman, Michael Coe, acknowledged that businesses that were not growing would probably lose jobs while those that are growing might see increases.
SBC has more than 50 million phone lines in 13 states. A company spokesman, Larry Solomon, said the job cuts «will be across geographies and across business units.»
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By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
The Federal Communications Commission ruled Tuesday that providers of
Internet-based phone call services fall under jurisdiction of the federal government and cannot be regulated by states, a step that could help boost the emerging services.
Commissioners voted 5–0 in favor of Vonage Holdings of Edison, N.J., which had asked the agency to declare the company’s product an interstate service, giving the FCC regulatory control.
Vonage has been battling public utilities officials in Minnesota who want the company to register in the state as a telecommunications service, subjecting it to rate regulation and other state rules.
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BellSouth Answers(R) Provides Customers with Convenience and Savings
ATLANTA, /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ As announced in its third
quarter 2004 earnings report, BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) has reached four million
BellSouth Answers(R) bundle customers. The company’s popular BellSouth
Answers(R) bundles combine local, long distance, Cingular wireless services, Internet and DIRECTV digital satellite television service in a bundled offering, providing greater flexibility and overall increased savings to consumers on their monthly communications and entertainment services.
«We are very pleased that four million customers look to BellSouth to
bundle their communications and entertainment services,» said Randy Kinkaid,
acting vice president of BellSouth Consumer Services Marketing. «This is
evidence that more and more customers are selecting BellSouth as the one
provider for all of their communications and entertainment needs. BellSouth
Answers bundles provide customers with the quality, flexibility and value they
demand from a comprehensive portfolio of communications and entertainment
services.»
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