Local measured service revisited: A Southern Wisconsin test case

Pricing local telephone service on a usage-sensitive basis has long been thought to have welfare-enhancing effects over the traditional fiat-rate pricing scheme. The authors examine a new data set containing observations of residential and business calling patterns both before and after a switch to measured service. For a rural area of south-central Wisconsin, the data provide a rare opportunity to study the same consumers both before and after such a pricing change is made. Comparing the measured system used in this area to the previous literature shows that, even though the current system does not contain all the elements of a theoretically optimal pricing scheme, significant welfare gains are still achieved.