Word: mci
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Those consumers who received ballots but did not vote -- perhaps 30% of telephone users -- will find the choice made for them. They will be assigned a carrier according to the outcome in their region. If ballots split 60% for AT& T and 40% for MCI, for example, 60% of nonvoting consumers would receive AT&T service while the remainder would find themselves dialing on MCI. Customers could switch carriers thereafter, but would pay a $5 fee to their local Baby Bell...
With such high competitive stakes, the Big Three long-distance firms spent inordinate sums to woo their customers. AT&T dished out an estimated $200 million on the election, or nearly half its annual advertising budget. MCI invested $75 million, and US Sprint $70 million...
...gone for television commercials in a kind of surrogate Battle of the Long-Distance Pitchmen. AT&T employed Actor Cliff Robertson, who had earned a reputation for scrupulous honesty by blowing the whistle on a 1977 Hollywood embezzlement scandal, for a reported salary of $2 million a year. MCI riposted with Burt Lancaster and Comic Joan Rivers. Sprint was represented for a time by Psychologist Joyce Brothers. The campaign has also extended beyond the airwaves to local shopping malls and amusement parks, where the rival long-distance suppliers have even hired acrobats and clowns to promote their cause...
...seems only fitting for a purely commercial election contest, the long- distance companies have also resorted to price cutting to win votes. US Sprint has offered a 10% reduction on all long-distance calls for a year to anyone who signs up for the service before Sept. 30. MCI is offering its users a ! free, one-hour long-distance call to anywhere in the world...
...virtually every telephone customer in the U.S., amassed during decades of monopoly service. Possession of those records allowed AT&T to adjust its campaign pitch more finely, and at lower cost, than could its rivals, who were allowed under FCC rules to buy customer data from the Baby Bells. MCI estimates that it spent between $10 and $15 to reach each residential customer in the election, more than three times the cost for AT&T. Says Charles Skibo, president of US Sprint: "AT&T had the data to sharpshoot and pick off select targets. We were shooting in the dark...