Intrastate service rates

The next  service category is intrastate,  which involves carrier services for calls outside the  LATA but  inside the  boundaries of the  state where your local access line is installed.

As with intralata, if you tell your  LEC nothing about which intrastate carrier you want  to use when  you begin  the  lease of your  local access line, you auto- matically inherit the  LEC as your  intrastate carrier. Intrastate services are basically the  same as intralata services except they cover a much larger  geo- graphic area.  Intrastate is sometimes called interlata because several LATAs are situated in any given state.

If you’re  a consumer, you’re  probably paying  an intrastate per-minute rate for all your  in-state calls with destinations outside your  specific LATA. If you’re  a business, your  carrier services company probably set  up some kind of plan  based on a flat rate with a certain minute-volume or number-of-calls commit- ment level.

Carriers that own their telecommunications network infrastructure are better equipped to offer you bargains on in-state calling  if you sign a long-term deal with them for both local and  intrastate carrier services. Carriers that lease lines  from larger  carriers and  then resell carrier services to you have  less  flexibility.

Many carriers offer a flat rate for in-state calling.  In Pennsylvania, for exam- ple, some offer flat rates with no recurring charges. But if you’re not using  VoIP, read the  terms of the  deal  carefully. Does it start out  as a recurring per- minute charge and  then metamorphize into a flat rate only after  you’ve used (and paid  for) a certain number of minutes?
So how can VoIP help?  VoIP has  no recurring carrier service charge for calls to locations around the  state that are on your  company’s computer network, such as your  branch office up north or your  factory down  south. Also, if you have  locations around the  state on a VoIP network, you can place a VoIP call through the  location nearest to your  calling  destination. Your call would  then usually become a local call in that location’s calling area.