PacBell Customers Get to Choose

Starting today, Pacific Bell customers will be able to shop around and subscribe to the carrier of their choice for local toll calls, just as they already do for long-distance service. Local toll calls are those that fall between free local zones and long-distance. Until now, PacBell automatically carried all its customers’ local toll calls, unless the caller dialed a special code first. Federal and state regulators mandated the switch after rejecting efforts by PacBell to further postpone toll-call competition--a $1.6-billion market in California, the largest in the country. California customers of GTE Corp. already have that choice.