> Did telephone service become cheaper before or after 1/1/1984? It's a
>> serious question, I don't know.
> In general, long (both regional and national) distance and
> international calls become MUCH cheaper. Pre-1984, we used to worry
> about how much a call to a relative in another state would cost and
> we'd keep the call as short as possible. International calls would
> cost a goodly portion of the national debt.
Concrete examples: Typical long distance call in the evening, 15 to 25 cents per minute; typical overseas call, $1.50 to $3.00 per minute, in the early 1980s. Note that there's been some inflation; for today's equivalent you should at least double those prices.
But there were no telemarketers calling us from India.