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11:45 pm
Whose side is the CRTC on? On the side of big money or on the side of consumers... looks lopsided and certainly not on the side of consumers because the collection of 911 fees totalling over $244 MILLION in 2007 (now 2009 will be even more) is like giving the cell phone providers another avenue to add more and more this fee and that fee to our already long list of fees in our bills. Each telco can set their own 911 rate and taking an average of $1 per month 911 fee, 2007 saw almost a quarter of a billion $ collected by all the telcos with a subscriber base of 20.4 million Canadian cell phones in use in 2007.
What happens to the millions of $$ not used for locating origin of or providing "free" 911 calls???
I DON'T BELIEVE Canada needs $244 MILLION EVERY YEAR to provide "free" or to locate origin of 911 calls!!!
How many 911 calls need to be traced each year?
Does each and EVERY cell phone subscriber spends 48 minutes (or $12 at 25 cents a minute) on "free" emergency calls EVERY YEAR?? I don't think so... certainly not.
IF there is already enough money for 911 calls/services and the piggy bank is big enough to earn more money by itself (just like how many higher education scholarship funds are doing), then the 911 fees should be abolished, scrapped and NOT be another rip-off .. nickelling and diming us at every turn...
I will be happy paying for what is real and fair BUT no one likes being ripped-off!! Certainly not me.. and NO ONE, NOT EVEN THE CRTC, should be giving any company or any corporation any excuse to rip us off!!
Why call the 911 fee 99 cents/month? ... does it sound psychologically good reading and hearing the word "cents" like 99 cents???... like it's only just a few nickels and and a few dimes!!.. Why not call it like it really is... a dollar...oops, that sounds expensive... dollar.. as opposed to a few nickels and a few dimes like 99 cents, pennies only!!
What is the REAL function of the CRTC???
Who are the people in the CRTC?
What are the qualifications needed to sit up there in the CRTC?
IF the CRTC wants the 911 fee imposed, then the CRTC SHOULD also see that the 911 fee is not exploited as a criminal cash cow or an illegal cash grab using 911 emergency!! fear-mongering.
12:25 pm
March 15, 2008
Offline
I have no idea if the $244M is accurate or reflects only the true costs of 911 service but your analysis, calculations and conclusions are faulty.
Here's just one reason (there are more): It costs a lot of money to set up and staff 911 call centers in communities from coast to coast to coast, providing coverage 24×7x365. Suppose there are 1,000 such centers with an average of 10 employees who earn an average of $50k/year including benefits and other ancillary costs. That's 1,000 x 10 x 50,000 = $500M per year. Now that's just staffing costs. It doesn't include hardware costs. It doesn't include buildings and facilities, etc. And it doesn't include the cost of any airtime.
9:04 pm
No, no, no... the whole 911 system and infrastructure has been fully developed and fully paid for since long, long ago ... during those years when there was no such thing as a cell phone. The 911 system is paid for directly or indirectly by various levels of government... city, provincial, and federal. It was, and still is, being paid for, upgraded and maintained, even now, by ALL taxpayers ( including us who are taxpayers... and we are actually paying TWICE for 911 services... once as taxpayers and second as cell phone users) and paying as a taxpayer is the right thing to do because the 911 system is for EVERYONE. ... NOT just for cell phone users.... so cell phone users shouldn't be the only people to pay for the whole system!!
IF cell phone users have to pay for and maintain the whole 911 system, then that would be most unfair to cellular users because cell phone use of 911 centres are just a very, very MINOR part of the 911 centres. Just like maybe half a wheel... actually even less tha half a wheel....of a car that had already been built.
BUT $1 a month or over $244 million A YEAR, is waaay too much for that small portion of cell phone use of the 911 system.... and even cell phone companies are aware of this huge amount of money collected as 911 fees... many of the cellular players, even the big cellular companies, have so far, OVER THE YEARS, NOT disclosed the exact details of the 911 fees that they have collected... like how much of the million $$ have been used for 911 services, how much goes into their company profits or directly or indirectly into their personal pockets and etc etc. They are very secretive about the 911 fees that they have collected AND where all that money has gone or is going to. (AND 911 fees should NEVER be profits for ANY corp, ANY company OR ANY person!!) 911 fees should be used FOR 911 EMERGENCIES ONLY !!! and not cheating or misleading us by using the 911 fees for profits or for personal bonuses instead of emergency use !!
WE SHOULD PAY... AND I AM VERY HAPPY TO PAY 911 FEES... BUT I believe even 20 cents a month (and not 99 cents) would be more than sufficient to cover 911 usage by cell phone users. I don't want to be misled and cheated paying $35,000 for an exact same new car that is being sold for $20,000 !! Bottom line, same thing with 911 fees... it's the principle of things... not to be misled, not to be cheated, not to be ripped-off...and it's not about the amount or the money.
We love paying for our cars, we love using and paying for our cell phones and paying for our rates BUT who loves paying hundreds of percent more than what is needed for an already healthy profit margin for cellular phone companies??? ... just like paying $35,000 for a $20,000 car !!
So in conclusion, the 911 fees should be REDUCED or ABOLISHED because a lot has been collected already and the money collected can grow by itself to sustain itself AND no one else pays TWICE for 911 services. So why discriminate against cell phone users who have to pay taxes used for 911 fees AND then pay again 911 fees as cell phone users?
