Cost of International Calls Expected to Plunge

Countries around the world are expected to see the cost ofinternational phone calls to plunge if competition really replacesmonopoly.

A 10-minute international call from the U.S.A. will likely bereduced from an average 9.1 U.S. dollars to 2 dollars within a fewyears, according to a Monday report of the USA Today.

A world Trade Organization agreement reached Saturday in Genevaamong 68 countries will open global competition next January intelecommunication.Consumers will save as much as 1 trillion U.S. dollars by 2010,according to the report.No country will force companies to lower rates. But they willpermit competition which will mean lower prices, higher quality andgreater choice.The reason international calls will drop 78 percent is that itonly costs slightly more to complete such calls than it does tocomplete calls in the U.S.A., where the average charge is now 16cents a minute.Phone monopolies have kept the price of long-distance calls highby overcharging long-distance carriers to complete calls. U.S.companies complained that they had been paying a multidollar foreigntax with each call.Cellular systems will likely explode as countries turn to wirelesstechnology and bypass the expense of laying land lines. In addition,worldwide Internet access is around the corner which will greatlyreduce the cost of long-distance calls, too.