Local (wired) telephone service should be (almost) FREE

Further to my other post on the minimum wage...

Take a look at a modern telephone bill:

$24.10 Individual Residential Line
$ 7.00 Call Display
$ 2.00 Non-published Telephone Number
$ 0.21 Number Portability Charge
$ 0.18 E9-1-1 Network Access

$33.49 TOTAL

Why are we paying $7.00 for Caller ID? That's really a TAX (!). And what is this Number Portability Charge? Where did that come from?

Telephone service should really be FREE (or nearly so) and paid for, except maybe a one-time small setup fee of, say $15.00. Caller ID Tax should be scrapped. It should be part of Basic Telephone Service as a RIGHT.

Decades ago, when the switching equipment broke down because it was based on mechanical and vacuum tube technology, you could charge customers more. But since the mid-to late-1980s virtually ALL telephone switches were converted from mechanical to electronic versions. The equipment just doesn't wear out like it used to! There is no need to charge customers such HIGH fees to use basic local (wired) telephone.

If you say "just get yourself a cell(ular) phone Jim". You still need a wired connection for Internet in some way.

No, these extra fees, where does this money really go to? Does it end up with the Illuminati banksters?

To compare, 30 years ago we paid no more than $5.95 a month for MTS. Long Distance cost you a lot though. But now with the Internet and e-mail, who calls LD anymore?

I agree. the caller ID is already coming across the line and if you dont pay for it they actually have to do more work to surpress it, then they do to continue to allow it to reach your phone.


number portability charge? that F'd up

$2.00 to NOT publish your phone number? WTF? really? in this day and age of computer clicking a checkbox once somehow costs $2.00 per month?

you know why you need to pay $24.10 for the line? Because the PUB forces them to and the PUB forces them to deliver the same service to everyone in the province, including tiny little 10 person towns so they are FORCING you to subsidize other places....MTS has applied to reduce it in the past by the PUB says no.. we are socialist we understand fiscal responsibility better.

No one is forced to get call-display or non-pub.
That can save $9 bucks plus tax on the bill a month.

that is not the point. Call display costs the telco MORE to turn it off then it does to just leave it on. Non pub should be free and in my opinion the telco should have to pay you if they want to list your number.

Our various numbers like office, home, fax etc, including telephone "rental" costs us almost $400/month. My wife is telling me about something she's seeing on TV that would bring this all together for about $20 a YEAR. I forget the name of it but you'll see a TV commercial saying it can be bought at Best Buy. I'd love to get MTS out of my life.

My friend, a salesman , used to spend $800 per month on his cel phone is now using that device and is spending nothing but that $20 or $30 charge per year.

Well if I include cell then it's up to about $600/month. I just need to focus one day on disconnecting from MTS - it's a damn waste of money. One of problems is that I have an 800# ring off of one of those land-lines. Some things I can't afford to lose in the shuffle. Another sticking point has been that my numbers have been on my cards/letterhead etc for 20 years and now I'd have to change everything. Apparently that's one thing about this Best Buy thing - assign new number. Maybe there's a telecom consultant around that could push me through this web.

What's next? Water and Sewer service and electricity should be a basic right, and should be free too?

I agree with pay for what you get. Making telephony a basic right is too much.

HAH!.. no.. but water and sewer services in Winnipeg should not be subsidizing water and sewer services in Nelson House either.

And.. careful about the free hydro thing. the PUB has already ordered Hydro to come up with a way of lowering rates for the poor.

Everything should be FREE!

yeah yeah.. and we should be allowed to have chickens in the city too right?

Chickens yes - Roosters NO!!!

if you got angry at the chickens making noise, would it be okay to choke them?

I was waiting for you to say that.....watch out for the PETA folks.....heheheh....or the angry moralists?

Deank wrote:if you got angry at the chickens making noise, would it be okay to choke them?

If we did that, this city would be populated with very happy females!!!!!!!!!

holly golightly wrote:

Deank wrote:if you got angry at the chickens making noise, would it be okay to choke them?

If we did that, this city would be populated with very happy females!!!!!!!!!

women are allowed to choke the chicken now?

That's how I like my chicken choked.

JTF wrote:That's how I like my chicken choked.

since they are generally weaker, does the chicken turn out more tender?

Heh heh...it turns out just right.

GROAN.......

Jondo wrote:Well if I include cell then it's up to about $600/month. I just need to focus one day on disconnecting from MTS - it's a damn waste of money. One of problems is that I have an 800# ring off of one of those land-lines. Some things I can't afford to lose in the shuffle. Another sticking point has been that my numbers have been on my cards/letterhead etc for 20 years and now I'd have to change everything. Apparently that's one thing about this Best Buy thing - assign new number. Maybe there's a telecom consultant around that could push me through this web.

You do not have to change phone numbers when changing service providers now. If you change to Shaw your number comes with you. Not sure how that works on internet phone systems though.

grumpy old man wrote:

Jondo wrote:Well if I include cell then it's up to about $600/month. I just need to focus one day on disconnecting from MTS - it's a damn waste of money. One of problems is that I have an 800# ring off of one of those land-lines. Some things I can't afford to lose in the shuffle. Another sticking point has been that my numbers have been on my cards/letterhead etc for 20 years and now I'd have to change everything. Apparently that's one thing about this Best Buy thing - assign new number. Maybe there's a telecom consultant around that could push me through this web.

You do not have to change phone numbers when changing service providers now. If you change to Shaw your number comes with you. Not sure how that works on internet phone systems though.

Not always the case, GOM. We just switched from MTS to Shaw a few months ago and MTS denied us the ability to take the phone number we had for 20+ years over to Shaw. I guess it depends on the day and who you speak to at MTS and what their mood is at that time. Our MTS phone number was only being used for our internet availability and we swithed everything, TV, Internet, Landline to Shaw and MTS was quite pi$$ed off to say the least. The only thing I still have on MTS is my Blackberry and if it wasn't so expensive to buy out my contract I would and switch to Rogers just because. MTS yesterday turned my blackberry off because my final internet payment had not been received by them so they deemed it late. And by the way, my final payment for the internet was $13.56 so it wasn't as if I was trying to dodge a huge bill.

Its actually a requirement by law that you can take your number with you. They can not stop you.

Deank wrote:Its actually a requirement by law that you can take your number with you. They can not stop you.

You also shouldn't be responsible to do anything. Shaw is the one who deals with MTS when it comes to moving your number over on the day of your install.

Shaw doesn't leave your house until you phone is working.

That was my understanding as well. Shaw took care of everything and switched my MTS line over to Shaw seamlessly.