Revenue from its storage products also fell, as customers shifted away from large centralized systems.

The proposal encourages manufacturers and customers to shift toward larger, less efficient vehicles, defeating the goal of reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

In recent years, customers shifted to minivans and compact cars like Honda Fit.

The companies are following similar strategies of helping customers shift from large mainframe computers to networks of desktop machines.

The executives said that they had proposed the new basic rates presuming that many customers would shift making long-distance calls to Sunday to save money.

"An economist would expect a customer would react and shift load to other periods of the day," he said.

No." As soon as gas prices rise, many customers shift to oil, which some can do with the flip of a switch.

A danger for WorldCom, therefore, is that such customers will shift portions of their business to hedge against future service problems.

Small-car sales have plunged 20 percent in the last two years as customers have shifted to midsize sedans and sport utility vehicles.

Microsoft executives also stressed that the revenue numbers were more difficult to gauge because corporate customers were increasingly shifting from buying to licensing software.