Long Distance call prices fell after the breakup of Ma Bell in 1982, prior to which you paid whatever prices were set primarily by AT&T (which had an almost total monopoly on the telephone business). I haven’t had a lineline in decades, but I remember when you had to choose a long carrier or be subject to whatever (much higher) fee your carrier assigned to you. I also believe you couldn’t call someone directly, but had to call your long distance carrier first, then they’d route your call for you.
The next step was prepaid LD calling cards, which I believe also requires you call a special number and put in your card PIN.
*"Breakup of the Bell System
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by an agreed consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies that had provided local telephone service in the United States and Canada up until that point.[1] This effectively took the monopoly that was the Bell System and split it into entirely separate companies that would continue to provide telephone service. AT&T would continue to be a provider of long distance service, while the now-independent Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) would provide local service, and would no longer be directly supplied with equipment from AT&T subsidiary Western Electric."*
*"Effects
The breakup led to a surge of competition in the long distance telecommunications market by companies such as Sprint and MCI.[5] AT&T’s gambit in exchange for its divestiture, AT&T Computer Systems, failed, and after spinning off its manufacturing operations (most notably Western Electric, which became Lucent, then Alcatel-Lucent, now Nokia) and other misguided acquisitions such as NCR and AT&T Broadband, it was left with only its core business with roots as AT&T Long Lines and its successor AT&T Communications. It was at this point that AT&T was purchased by one of its own spin-offs, SBC Communications, the company that had also purchased two other RBOCs and a former AT&T associated operating company (Ameritech, Pacific Telesis, and SNET), and which later purchased another RBOC (BellSouth).
One consequence of the breakup was that local residential service rates, which were formerly subsidized by long distance revenues, began to rise faster than the rate of inflation. Long-distance rates, meanwhile, fell both due to the end of this subsidy and increased competition.[5]" *