# LONG DISTANCE
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-distance/6689
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 30, 2000, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-distance/6689 "2000-01-30T07:45:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Templeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Templeton)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2000, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-distance/6689/1 "2000-01-30T07:45:00Z")
How come with most calling plans from any of the big phone service providers it’s more expensive to make an in-state long distance call than an out of state one?
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Now is the time for all good men to come the the aid of their gazorninplatt.
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### Author:  [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2000, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-distance/6689/2 "2000-01-30T10:50:00Z")
Uhh, maybe because they make more money that way ?
Oh, you don’t need to use all-caps. We can read the smaller letters without glasses.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2000, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-distance/6689/3 "2000-01-30T11:01:00Z")
I really hate that. Calling a place 30 miles away costs more than a place 3,000 miles away? What the F\*\*\* is that S\*\*\* ?
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### Author:  [@WillGolfForFood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillGolfForFood)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2000, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-distance/6689/4 "2000-01-30T13:14:00Z")
I believe that’s because those calls (I’ve heard them referred to as “local long-distance”) traditionally haven’t experienced the competition that “real” long-distance calls have. I don’t think you have the option of selecting your local-long-distance carrier.
Of course, as other options such as cell phones become more viable competition begins to appear from other directions.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2000, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-distance/6689/5 "2000-01-30T19:41:00Z")
We finally got a plan through MCI where all in-state and out-of-state calls, any time, are 5 cents a minute. $8.95 a month. We compared phone bills for a couple of months before signing up for it. Figure it might save us $10 a month or so.
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### Author:  [@jwg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jwg)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2000, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-distance/6689/6 "2000-01-31T15:47:00Z")
Long distance carriers traditionally do not have local service capabilities, although that is rapidly changing. Judge Green, the Yoko Ono of telecommunications, restricted AT&T (and by default, MCI, Sprint and the other LD competitors) from local service when the Bell System was broken up. AT&T never really did provide local service, if you wanted to make a call from NYC to Buffalo, that was courtesy of New York Telephone, and possibly a half dozen other companies in between who actually provided the physical facilities for the call. Some of these companies were owned by AT&T, some were not. All added to the bill though. It is still more or less true today.
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### Author:  [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2000, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-distance/6689/7 "2000-02-01T03:43:00Z")
I think it has something to do with the fact that interstate calls are regulated by the federal government, but intrastate calls are only regulated by the state governments.