Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Dewey Henize Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Latest Charge by Southwestern Bell Message-ID: <3762@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 12 Feb 90 03:46:40 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 53 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 94, message 3 of 6 First the quote from the flyer included in the bill: "Beginning this month, a 911 service fee is included in your bill. It appears on the Southwestern Bell detail of charges under the listing 911 service fee. This fee is collected for your regional planning commission for use in extending the territory and enhancing the 911 system. Currently, not all areas of the county have access to the 911 service. This fee will make 911 service available in those areas at a future date." The first thing that comes to mind is the great quote "We're from the government and we're here to help you." The fee appears to be $0.50 per line, I guess, since the bill is for eight lines and the charge is four dollars. Although I read this group on the Usenet side and I try to keep up with what I can hear about locally, this was quite a surprise. I like the part about 'at a future date'. Talk about an open ended deal! Sure is good for the collectors - make a few mods to an accounting program and start raking in money. No promise of when this money will be used (for someone else, note), just 'at a future date'. With a deadline of that, wanta bet they never have enough stashed away (like it goes into different coffers or something - HAH) to get things done just the way they think they should be? Of course meanwhile we all get to fund a bunch of people who brought us such wonders as the attempts to unilaterally change all private BBSs business rates. Does anyone have any figures on how hard it really is to add 911 service to a part of a county? Assume the worst, that its only in the more remote areas, and so on. What's the basis for a deal like this? Hell, $6.00 per line per year in a primarily metro area is a LOT of dollars, especially since I have to doubt that it involves something like modifying customer phones and lines - I mean, surely this is only in the exchanges and COs. Maybe this is why they fortify those buildings so strongly - to get a place to hide when they come up with something like this... Dewey Henize Execucom Systems Corp (512) 327-7070 108 Wild Basin Rd Network Administrator Austin, Tx 78746 ...{cs.utexas.edu | uunet}!execu!dewey or dewey@execu.com [Moderator's Note: We here in IBT-land got stuck with a 911 surcharge starting last month. We pay 95 cents per line; it will be used to improve our existing 911 service, which is about fifteen years old. PT]