If you use only a small amount of long distance each month, a cheap per minute rate could actually cost you more because of the monthly charge. As a result, plans with monthly charges are usually more appropriate for high usage customers. At the 30 minute usage level this plan appears fairly expensive, ranking sixteenth out of seventeen. However, at the high usage level of 240 minutes the Sprint plan appears relatively cheap, rising to rank eighth out of seventeen. Smaller billing increments favor customers .
Different companies bill in different increments of time.
Generally, the smaller the billing increment, the better it is for the customer. For example, Bell Atlantic bills in 6 second increments. This means that if a call lasts 1 minute and 7 seconds, the customer will be billed for a call lasting 1 minute and 12 seconds. On the other extreme, VarTec bills in one minute increments with a three minute minimum. The same 1 minute and 7 second call on VarTec would result in a customer being billed for a 3 minute call.