William H. Magill on 18 Jul 2004 15:57:02 -0000


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Re: [PLUG] DSL w/o local phone


On 17 Jul, 2004, at 00:27, gyoza@comcast.net wrote:
Yeah, that's a basic phone service.  Calling it a "life line" suggested to me that it is an limited service.  Thereby lowering the monthly cost.

Yup ... It's all about "marketing."

It is "limited" in that you don't get any significant number of "free" message units.
[Pay more and you get more "free" message units...]


"Basic" phone service costs about $17 a month before taxes, surcharges and fees.
"Life line" phone service costs about two-thirds less.


The reason is that the "basic" service includes a bunch of "free" message units for "local calls." (Plus another $1.00 or so, just to be connected to some long distance provider "automatically" when you dial 1 -- so you don't have to dial an access code.)

"Life line" service is intended to allow the person, presumed to be elderly or ill, to call emergency services and to receive "check-up" calls. The assumption is that they don't normally originate calls, just receive them.

It is also in response to various legislative and regulatory concerns about providing "cheap" phone service for the elderly and infirm.

The significant difference is that if you are not on a "calling plan" message units are EXPENSIVE, i.e. no volume discount, and charges mount up fast.


T.T.F.N. William H. Magill # Beige G3 - Rev A motherboard - 768 Meg # Flat-panel iMac (2.1) 800MHz - Super Drive - 768 Meg # PWS433a [Alpha 21164 Rev 7.2 (EV56)- 64 Meg]- Tru64 5.1a # XP1000 [Alpha EV6] magill@mcgillsociety.org magill@acm.org magill@mac.com

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