Sprint Offers New Rate for State-to-State Calls

Hoping to capture a bigger slice of the U.S. long-distance market, Sprint Corp. has unveiled a calling plan with evening rates of 5 cents a minute--roughly half the price of typical weeknight calls.

Of course, there are a few catches: Sprint’s “Nickel Nights” plan has a hefty monthly fee of $5.95; and the per-minute rate applies only to state-to-state calls placed during certain hours.

In California, those hours are fairly generous--5 p.m. to midnight daily (including weekends). Elsewhere, the hours are from 7 p.m. to midnight. For calls made during other times, the rate jumps to 10 cents per minute.

Nationwide, Sprint’s new plan applies only to long-distance calls that cross state lines. But in California, the plan also includes an “any time” rate of 5 cents per minute for all in-state long-distance, according to Greg Field, Sprint’s director of domestic marketing.

Sprint also offers the special in-state price for Californians through a separate calling plan with a $4.95 monthly fee.

Rivals AT&T; Corp. and MCI WorldCom said they had no plans for similar offers.

Consumer groups noted that the high monthly fee could limit the promotion’s appeal.

“If you are a heavy caller, with $25 to $30 a month or more in long-distance, and do a lot of your calling at night, then 5 cents is going to be a pretty decent rate,” said Samuel A. Simon, chairman and founder of the Telecommunications Research & Action Center, a Washington group that studies long-distance prices. “But it’s very important that people do plan comparisons.”

Linda Sherry, editorial director at San Francisco-based Consumer Action, adds that “we just don’t think people need to go with fee-based plans given the deals that are out there.”