Telefonica de Espana SA is planning to reduce the present 12 tariff classifications for its telephone subscribers to only four, according to Candido Velazquez, who referred to a four-year project that will group tariffs into Regional, National, European, and Mediterranian. At the moment there is an enormous difference between the cost of intercity calls compared with local calls which Velazquez does not consider justified. Also local calls are three times more expensive than what Telefonica charges for them, while international calls could, feasibly, reduced by half. The most expensive tariffs at present are 460 times more expensive than the cheapest ones and Telefonica’s intentions are that international calls should be no more than 30 times the price of regional calls by 1992. This will, of course, require a considerable reduction in international tariffs as well as an increase in those for local calls. The current tariff classifications: local (city centre), local (suburbs), local (neighbouring towns), 60 miles to 300 miles, over 300 miles, France, Portugal, the rest of Europe, Magreb, America, Middle East, and the rest of the world, will be reduced gradually to nine groups in 1989, to seven in 1990, and to four in 1992. Velazquez also confirmed that telephone price increases for this year would be pitched below the rate of inflation.
