News In Brief

FCC says US phone bills won't soar under breakup

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says its recent decisions on telephone rates and the breakup of American Telephone and Telegraph would not drive up residential phone bills sharply.

The FCC predicted residential monthly phone bills would be only $6.80 higher in 1989 than today. Critics have charged that AT&T's break-up would cause bills to skyrocket and force the poor to give up their phones. But the FCC said that as few as I percent of current subscribers would be forced to abandon their phones.