By comparison, A.T.&T. charges $6.02 for a prime-time three-minute call, and $3.78 for its least costly call.

A three-minute call from New York to Chicago in 1902 cost $5.45 - about $120 today.

The restaurant normally allows patrons to make these three-minute calls for 25 cents each.

A three-minute call to the United States costs 41 units.

Once the customers are seated and have ordered, the waiter informs them that each may buy one 25-cent token good for a three-minute call.

They tend to charge as much as $28 for a three-minute call, compared with $3 for the same time charged by A.T.&T.

Telephone conversations were almost a forbidden luxury because it cost $25 for a three-minute call from the United States to France.

Then, according to notes that officials made of the three-minute call, he shouted: "Don't you know who you're dealing with?

To promote Sprint long-distance services, the company offered to anyone at the American Franchise Association exposition one free three-minute call to anywhere.

Now the Army is to give every soldier an extra £10 a month, which should pay for a weekly three-minute call.