SLICING PHONE COSTS

Faced with diminishing telecomrevenues and higher costs, the 3 biglong-distance phone companies—AT&T, MCI, and Sprint—are pilingon fees and ramping up rates in aneffort to generate profits. It may betime to switch carriers—some long-distanceplans can give you as muchas a 90% discount off the big 3'sbasic rates. Many of these deep discountersare re-sellers with unfamiliarnames, however; if the idea ofsigning up with a company you neverheard of gives you sweaty palms, youcan still get a comparison of long-distancephone rates from the big3 at any of several Web-based rate-comparisonsites like ABellTolls.comor TollChaser.com.