By Elise Deeqa DeLancey
Contributing Writer

Calling home will soon be cheaper for students hailing from Limestone to Los Angeles.

As early as Oct. 7, students will automatically be switched to a new AT&T/ACUS long-distance plan with a flat rate of 15 cents per minute, according to Director of Information Technology Services (ITS) John Meerts.

Under AT&T/ACUS’s current plan, students pay as high as 29 cents per minute during peak hours and 15 cents during non-peak hours for out of state calls.

"The rates before were a rip-off," said Henry Choi ’01. "This sounds a little bit more reasonable."

Meerts said students will also be offered a plan which charges a monthly fee of $4.95 and a rate of seven cents per minute for state-to-state calls. Non-local calls within the state will cost nine cents per minute under this plan.

Students desiring this option will have to phone AT&T/ACUS.

Meerts said AT&T and Wesleyan are in the "final phase of the negotiation stage."

"There are lots of ifs and buts, but hopefully this [October deadline] will work," added Director of Technology Support Services Ganesan Ravishanker.

Meerts explained that the University selects a long-distance plan every few years from a set of college/university-wide programs offered by telephone companies.

He said AT&T’s program ACUS, which stands for AT&T’s College and University System, offered the least expensive plan a few years ago.

"AT&T looks at this as a business issue and they know students will look for other options," Meerts said. "They [also] see this as a customer-retention issue."

Under the new plan, Wesleyan students will also be able to choose other long-distance options that AT&T makes available to them online.

Ravishanker and Meerts said they hope the new plan will provide students with phone service similar to that of domestic households.