MARKETING

GTE takes billing to higher level GTE's 1.5 million Tampa customers can now get one bill for local, long-distance, Internet, cellular, paging and even airplane phone time. The complete suite of services on one bill is a first for any telco. Although long-distance providers such as AT&T and MCI offer one bill, they don't have local service yet and therefore can't include it on the bill. The opposite is true for local exchange carriers that provide one bill but usually exclude long-distance and any other service that LECs don't offer, such as cellular or Internet service. GTE is hoping to use the lure of a single bill to persuade its customers to switch to its long-distance and Internet services-two areas in which the carrier's service is still fairly new. Customers also have the option of keeping bills separate. "We anticipate one in four customers will take us up on this option," said Kim Lessner, director of consumer marketing strategies for GTE. GTE officials plan to expand the service to several other cities this year and to all its markets by the end of 1997. The company will also be looking at the potential of adding cable to the single bill as its cable trial in Tampa progresses.