dewey@execu.uucp> (02/12/90)
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 <sarcasm for the weak minded> 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]john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (02/13/90)
Dewey Henize <cedar!dewey@execu.uucp> writes: > First the quote from the flyer included in the bill: > "Beginning this month, a 911 service fee is included in your bill. It > [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. Sounds like you people need to get with the program! While 911 has only worked from my telephone for about five years (at the most), there has been a "911" surcharge for at least ten years. I remember calling someone early in 1984 and asking when 911 would become available and the answer was, "Sometime after the LA Olympics. We need to get it working there right away for obvious reasons." Pacific Bell: First to charge; last to provide the service. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
pf@islington-terrace.csc.ti.com (Paul Fuqua) (02/13/90)
Date: Sunday, February 11, 1990 9:46pm (CST)
From: cedar!dewey at execu.uucp (Dewey Henize)
Subject: Latest Charge by Southwestern Bell
The fee appears to be $0.50 per line, I guess, since the bill is for
eight lines and the charge is four dollars.
It's about the same in Dallas.
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?
In this area, Tarrant County (Fort Worth) got it first, a couple of
years back (three? four?). They managed to get the whole county
operational at once, but the biggest obstacle was assigning street
addresses (and street names!) to upwards of 7000 households that
received mail via RFD and the like.
Dallas County isn't quite completely covered, either, but at least
they had the clumsiness to start the service on April 1 (1988 or
1989).
Paul Fuqua pf@csc.ti.com
{smu,texsun,cs.utexas.edu,rice}!ti-csl!pf
Texas Instruments Computer Science Center
PO Box 655474 MS 238, Dallas, Texas 75265tanner@ki4pv.uucp (02/20/90)
) If your local govt is doing it's job, they are auditing the costs of
) providing this service, and should have it set up so that it is not
) just 50 cents in perpetuity, but for some limited period.
Perhaps they should. In Volusia County, the installation tax has gone
away, but the $0.30/line monthly tax will surely never go down. It
applies, of course, not only to voice lines but also to modems which
can't usefully dial 911. Installation started in `83, at which time
everyone was assigned house numbers.
) After that they should be able to determine the ongoing costs of
) maintaining the system and paying PSAP operators.
The costs are fairly impressive. In Volusia County (pop 350,000),
they expect 46900 calls this year, 20000 of which will be wrong
numbers (non-emergency calls). They budget $861466 for this; divided
by the total number of calls, it works out to be $18.36/call. Divided
by the number of emergency calls, it works out to be $32.02/call.
Are you SURE that the government is auditing the cost of this
service?
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