When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When Regan passed the the law to aid low income people the phones were connected to the homes not cell phones like they have today and they were much cheaper.
When Regan passed the the law to aid low income people the phones were connected to the homes not cell phones like they have today and they were much cheaper.
Landlines cost one hell of a lot more to maintain, and operate. The price of cell service is artificially inflated to an astronomical level.
Also, with demise of payphones there was a need for the disadvantaged to have access to a phone, even if only to call 911. Phone companies are the ones that originally started demonizing pay phones years ago, when they lost their monopoly on it. They said that pay phones were being used for drugs, and crime, when the polar opposite is true, because pay phones are easily tapped, whereas a throw-away cell is easy to come by.
If you're mad about the free phones, don't blame the government, blame the greedy phone companies.
You should check the part of your bill that says taxes before you blame the phone companies for high prices. The people on welfare also only got a 2 party line that was paid for by social services. Prices for phone lines were also regulated by the public service commission and only since deregulation have phone companies raised their rates. Pay phones were taken out because cell phones made them non-profitable due to the high maintenence and vandalism by people trying to steal money from them. Privately owned pay phones were the ones who overcharged customers not the long established ones. The last payphones had a computer in them which actually helped the police arrest drug dealers by giving them the numbers of the people who were called to buy the drugs. The price of cell service is artificially inflated to an astronomical level. This statement is not so true, do you have any idea what it cost to install a cell tower, pay the salaries of the sales reps, repair crews salaries, and a fee every month for the lease on the land where those cell towers are places. I made a good living working 36 years for a phone company and I retired with a pension, 401k, medical/dental, and stock options so thanks for helping to fund my retirement.
You should check the part of your bill that says taxes before you blame the phone companies for high prices. The people on welfare also only got a 2 party line that was paid for by social services. Prices for phone lines were also regulated by the public service commission and only since deregulation have phone companies raised their rates. Pay phones were taken out because cell phones made them non-profitable due to the high maintenence and vandalism by people trying to steal money from them. Privately owned pay phones were the ones who overcharged customers not the long established ones. The last payphones had a computer in them which actually helped the police arrest drug dealers by giving them the numbers of the people who were called to buy the drugs. The price of cell service is artificially inflated to an astronomical level. This statement is not so true, do you have any idea what it cost to install a cell tower, pay the salaries of the sales reps, repair crews salaries, and a fee every month for the lease on the land where those cell towers are places. I made a good living working 36 years for a phone company and I retired with a pension, 401k, medical/dental, and stock options so thanks for helping to fund my retirement.
You should check the part of your bill that says taxes before you blame the phone companies for high prices. The people on welfare also only got a 2 party line that was paid for by social services.
Nonsense. Do you even read what you write? You contradict yourself repeatedly. So which is it, are those phones paid for by the surcharge on my bill, or by social services? I can assure you, it's not by social services, and the telcos lobbied hard to be able to add that surcharge, because if there's one thing they love, it's more customers, and they don't care who's doing the paying. People on "welfare" never had party lines, I know people who were on that service.
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Prices for phone lines were also regulated by the public service commission and only since deregulation have phone companies raised their rates. Pay phones were taken out because cell phones made them non-profitable due to the high maintenance and vandalism by people trying to steal money from them.
More nonsense. In both Albany, and Schenectady, they convinced politicians that pay phone removal was necessary because they were used by drug dealers, when in reality, it was to wipe out the competition, that now largely consisted of private citizens.
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Privately owned pay phones were the ones who overcharged customers not the long established ones.
Do you make this stuff up as you go? When did you see a pay phone that charged more than the others?
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The last payphones had a computer in them which actually helped the police arrest drug dealers by giving them the numbers of the people who were called to buy the drugs.
You're delusional.. Tapping, and tracking hasn't been done at the phone itself since the early 60s. A computer that can discern which calls involved drugs, and tell the police? What kind of drugs are YOU on? Again, many of them were privately owned, and I can assure you none had a computer on board, especially not back then
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The price of cell service is artificially inflated to an astronomical level. This statement is not so true, do you have any idea what it cost to install a cell tower, pay the salaries of the sales reps, repair crews salaries, and a fee every month for the lease on the land where those cell towers are places.
Yes, I do. It's a small FRACTION of what it costs to maintain BILLIONS of miles of phone lines, poles,(as well as what they pay for the space that millions of poles sit on, and the aerial rights in some places) switching hubs etc. It takes less than 1/10th the amount of repair crews to maintain a cell system, and they rarely come down during a storm, or have a car crash into them.
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I made a good living working 36 years for a phone company and I retired with a pension, 401k, medical/dental, and stock options so thanks for helping to fund my retirement.
Don't thank me, thank your union. My grandfather was a "Bell Pioneer", working from the early 20s, to the early 60s, and got a similar deal, or as my father puts it, it wasn't much of a depression if your father had a good paying job.
I installed phones for the poor and social services would pay for a 2 party line only, it was in the billing section of the service order. The tax on a phone in the home was taxed as a luxury and the state wouldn't let phone companies lower the tax as the state couldn't afford the loss of revenue. This was not tapping,the numbers were stored for every call in the payphones computer and could be forced to be sent to the phone companies main computer. The police informant that made the call to order the drugs would note the time and the phone number and our security department would give the number called to the police along with the address of the drug dealer who took the call. Your grandfather retired long before the age of the computer, he was from the age of open wire that would cost a fortune to maintain. Once plastic cable came into production water and car accidents didn't do so much damage to the outside plant. You failed to address the cost of installing the cell towers and bills to be paid every month for the lease on the land they were installed on. Mostof the buy-out offers weren't offered until the 80's. I started in the early 60's and retired in the late 90's. I went to work for the phone company because they had good pay with good benefits. Now the same company has eliminated the pension plan and has a 401k only, employes fewer employees, is selling their copper wire business to other companies, and the union is having trouble hanging on to the benefits we gained in the early years.
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