U.S. Business: Wrong Numbers for A.T. & T.

American Telephone & Telegraph Co.has been trying to reach an 8% return on its invested capital for years,but it keeps getting cut off by a Washington operator: the Federal Communications Commission. Last week the FCC announced an annual $100 million reduction in long-distance telephone rates that will decrease A.T. & T.'s rate of return on interstate telephone operations from its present 7.9% to only 7% . A.T. & T.was obviously displeased. Chairman Frederick Kappel termed the reductions "out of step with the Government's efforts to encourage economic growth." But there is little doubt that subscribers will be happy to heed the call.

Beginning Feb. 1, the current after-9-p.m. $1 maximum rate for a three-minute, station-to-station call anywhere in the continental U.S. will go into effect after 8 p.m. and all day Sunday.

Weekday station rates between 6 p.m.

and 8 p.m. will be reduced and will also be applied all day Saturday. A three-minute station call between San Francisco and New York will drop from $2.25 to $1.50 on Saturdays, from $1.75 to only $1 on Sundays. Despite the revenue it will lose, A.T. & T. has no plans to reduce the record $3.5 billion it has allocated for capital expenditures in 1965, hopes to make up part of its loss by increasing long-distance usage.