a peculiar research question

deeper · Jan 21, 2014

How, oh how, does one go about finding the cost of a long-distance phone call from Houston to Washington, D.C. circa 1960-1964? (I skimmed through the research pages listed here at Absolute Write and found no help.)

For months I have tried researching this online and also with the public library, to no avail. All I can find out is that the "long-distance operator" would quote a price for the initial minute (or two minutes?) and that there was an additional charge for every minute thereafter.

This cost info is rather crucial to my novel, because the child making the calls is going to have a difficult time acquiring the money, and I need to know just how much coinage he requires.

Thank you in advance for any and all help.

alleycat · Jan 21, 2014

Back in those days there was a choice between person-to-person and station-to-station calls. Station-to-station calls were cheaper.

Could your character just call collect?

deeper · Jan 21, 2014

I should add that if I can find the cost of calling to and from "relatively nearby" locations, that will suffice. The cost of a call from Dallas or Fort Worth, for example, to Baltimore, for example, will be quite close enough.

deeper · Jan 21, 2014

alleycat said:
Could your character just call collect?

No, because the person he wants to speak to doesn't know who he is at first, and does NOT want to talk to him.

The child making the calls must first use a pay-phone, and after that proves unworkable, he will break into somebody's house and call direct from their private phone. (The child plans to reimburse the home-owner later.)

Thank you for the suggestion, though, alleycat!

alleycat · Jan 21, 2014

If you page down on this PDF document you will see some historical rates. It might be enough for you to make an educated guess as to what the call would cost.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/FCC-State_Link/Intl/itltrd98.pdf

Lil · Jan 21, 2014

Have yo considered asking AT&T? They must have a PR department.

DianeL · Jan 21, 2014

Lil, that's what I was thinking! Ask Ma Bell.

Lauram6123 · Jan 23, 2014

Came across this youtube link...maybe it will help. Very interesting stuff...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e601moNCA7Q

deeper · Jan 24, 2014

Lil said:
Have yo considered asking AT&T? They must have a PR department.

I've been all over their website and haven't found anything remotely like a customer service department, or even a phone number to speak to a human being. But I'm not done searching there.

deeper · Jan 24, 2014

Lauram6123 said:
Came across this youtube link...maybe it will help. Very interesting stuff...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e601moNCA7Q

That was fun, but didn't offer much information.

deeper · Jan 24, 2014

A hearty thank you to all who have tried to help!

robjvargas · Jan 24, 2014

Try AT&T's Press Room contacts:

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=1916

They may be able to get you an old rate book.

These days, everything is included (within the USA), but phone billing used to be covered based on zones called LATA's. If you made calls within your LATA, that was local calling. Local areas that were under different LATA's were local toll areas for you. And there was interstate long distance calling. Here's some FCC information on it.

The FCC suggests looking up your state's public service commission for rate information, and has a lookup tool for that. Call rates were heavily regulated when AT&T was an "approved" monopoly, so I think that's a good idea.

PaulLev · Jan 26, 2014

robjvargas said:
Try AT&T's Press Room contacts:

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=1916

They may be able to get you an old rate book.

These days, everything is included (within the USA), but phone billing used to be covered based on zones called LATA's. If you made calls within your LATA, that was local calling. Local areas that were under different LATA's were local toll areas for you. And there was interstate long distance calling. Here's some FCC information on it.

The FCC suggests looking up your state's public service commission for rate information, and has a lookup tool for that. Call rates were heavily regulated when AT&T was an "approved" monopoly, so I think that's a good idea.

AT&T used to have a staff historian - not sure if they still do. I contacted him more than 30 years ago with a question about one of the early would-be investors in the telephone (who decided not to invest in it), and he was enormously helpful. He sent me xeroxes of clippings of old newspapers AT&T had on file.

rtilryarms · Jan 26, 2014

deeper said:
How, oh how, does one go about finding the cost of a long-distance phone call from Houston to Washington, D.C. circa 1960-1964? (I skimmed through the research pages listed here at Absolute Write and found no help.)

For months I have tried researching this online and also with the public library, to no avail. All I can find out is that the "long-distance operator" would quote a price for the initial minute (or two minutes?) and that there was an additional charge for every minute thereafter.

This cost info is rather crucial to my novel, because the child making the calls is going to have a difficult time acquiring the money, and I need to know just how much coinage he requires.

Thank you in advance for any and all help.

The rates varied with the time of day. The trick to figuring out rates is advertisements. Here are a few links to get you started. Most are Sunday after 6. Using this clue, you can find more

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1960-Bell-T...300?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5aee5197b4

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1960-Vintag...721?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cd6b67db9

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/ad_we-globe-1964_big.jpg

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/advertisements4.html

find a reason to put their catch phrases and slogans in your story. People eat that up

rt

chompers · Jan 26, 2014

Not sure if this is even something of consideration/relevance, but wasn't the telephone company back then Southwestern Bell?

rtilryarms · Jan 26, 2014

chompers said:
Not sure if this is even something of consideration/relevance, but wasn't the telephone company back then Southwestern Bell?

All were divisions of the Bell Telephone System. but Southwestern Bell was the one spin-off which eventually gave AT&T leverage

a peculiar research question

deeper

(so they say)

alleycat

Still around

deeper

(so they say)

deeper

(so they say)

alleycat

Still around

Lil

DianeL

Lauram6123

deeper

(so they say)

deeper

(so they say)

deeper

(so they say)

robjvargas

PaulLev

I was here 3 months from now.

rtilryarms

Crossbows and Handgonnes

chompers

rtilryarms

Crossbows and Handgonnes