Your telephone is more valuable
Your telephone is a much better “buy” than ever before. Many more people now have telephones, and local calling areas have been extended. You can call more people and more can reach you.
These days, when the cost of nearly everything is higher than ever before, the price of telephone service has remained relatively low. On the average, since the Korean war, the cost of telephone service has gone up much less than the cost of other things you buy.
In the average exchange, telephone customers are able to reach over five times as many telephones at local rates as in 1920.
| 1920 | 30,000 | |
| 1954 | 156,000 | |
| Chart based on study of 170 U. S. cities over 50,000 population. | ||
Over the years there has been a remarkable reduction in long distance rates. Between 25 of the principal cities in the country, the average day rate for station calls has dropped from $6 in 1920 to about $1.55 today. The day rate for a New York-San Francisco station call has been reduced from $16.50 to $2.50. Overseas rates have been cut drastically since the service opened in 1927. A New York-London call that cost $75 in 1927 now costs only $12 in the daytime, or $9 nights and Sundays.