Consumer Information

California Local Toll Calling

Local, Local Toll and Long Distance

Local Access and Transport Areas (LATA) were created after the breakup of the Bell System. They are sometimes called service areas, or local toll calling areas. California is divided into 11 service areas, 10 of which are provided by AT&T. See our map below for a visual picture of this distribution.

Calls made to places within the same service area break down in the following way:

Rural:

Local Calls: 0-12 miles
Local Toll: 13+ miles (within service area)

Urban:

Local Calls: 0-12 miles
Zone Usage Measurement (ZUM), or Zone 3: 13-16 miles
Local Toll: 17+ miles (within service area)

See our Service Area Map below for a visual illustration of how a service area breaks down according to local, local toll, and long distance calls.

Local Toll* calls are toll calls made within your Service Area. California is divided into 11 LATA's also known as Service Areas. As displayed in the map below, AT&T California serves ten of these areas.

What is Local Toll?
Calls within each area, up to about 12 miles**, are local calls. In metropolitan areas, calls between 13 and 16 miles are Zone Usage Measurement (ZUM) Zone 3 calls. All other calls within each Service Area are now referred to as Local Toll calls. In non-ZUM areas Local Toll calls start at 13 miles.

*Local Toll calls are also known as Message Toll Telecommunications Service calls, Service Area toll calls or Local Plus calls.

**Mileage for telephone calls is calculated from a common point in your community (a "rate center") to the "rate center" in the community you are calling.