Word: sprinting
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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...
...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...
...residential customers, thanking them for choosing the company's service. In fact, they had not done any such thing. Two months ago, the Miami- based retailer known as Teltec Savings Communications filed suit against AT&T for allegedly misappropriating customers and trying to "undermine" Teltec's business. Sprint and Western Union have also been charged with using bait-and- switch tactics, quoting one long-distance subscription rate to consumers, then charging another. Yet despite all those occurrences, FCC overseers claim the election process has been fair. Says Albert Halprin, chief of the FCC's common-carrier division: "The process...
...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 with a scatter...