Interlata and Intralata Explained
When signing up for long distance you are first signing up for State-to-State or interLATA long distance service. This is easy enough; all of the applications and plan information pages list this as interstate. Then you see the link for intrastate rates and you check that out. It either looks good or not, it depends on what is available in your area. You decide that your present provider is better for the intrastate rates but we have a much better plan for interstate long distance.
So now you go to the sign-up page to start saving money as soon as possible. Here you see the line asking if you want this company to also handle your intralata long distance. Now you say, “What the heck is that?” Well, basically it's the intrastate long distance.
Here is a more technical explanation with diagrams of my state, Massachusetts.
Here is a map of New England. This is the easy part. State-to-state, interstate and interlata all apply here. This is usually the service that we are looking for when we shop for long distance service (aside from international service).
Here is a map of Massachusetts. It is divided in to a blue and a green region. These regions are the designated LATAs in Massachusetts. It is sorta like two separate companies handling these regions except in this case Verizon handles both.
The dot is my local area within my LATA (the blue). All calls within the dot are my local calls. The remainder of my LATA is intralata long distance, regional toll calls or sometimes (incorrectly) called instate long distance. This is the other long distance service that companies are trying to sell you. My interlata long distance company (i.e. state-to-state) will always handle the green area, being a different LATA. This is a federal regulation.
So in state long distance can be confusing. With my state having two LATAs one is an interlata long distance call (green) and the other (outside of my local area) is an intralata regional toll call.
Calls to the green area will be billed at the in-state rate if one is listed and calls to the blue area outside of my local area will be billed at the intralata rate (which could also be the same as the in-state rate)
Now you are beginning to see why choosing a long distance plan can be so difficult! It's just a LATA bull!
See our glossary for a list of more telecomunication terms. This will open in a new window so that you can minimize it and refer back to it when necessary.
More info
Interlata? Intralata? What is this?
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