Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Those federal phone taxes are used to expand service to under populated areas that would other wise not get phone service. As far as I know, those federal taxes are used to maintain and expand the land line phone service, not cell phone service.

While the cell phone system did quickly become over loaded, with people calling relatives who drive over that bridge, to see if they were all right, 3 people on the bridge center, that ended up in the river, were able to use their cell phones to call 911 to report the bridge failure while requesting help.

Such over loads of the phone system is why many safety exports recommend having a land line at home to make 911 calls during local over load events. I lose cell phone service every time a snow storm keeps people home.

Lack of coverage during local events is often caused by local governments that do not want new cell phone towers, that some voters view as public eye sores. I lived in a county whoses leaders had such a view. Getting permits for new cell phone towers was very hard. Plus county rules required that new cell phone towers had to be 300 feet away from any public road, adding to the cost of installing new towers. One tower had to be 300 feet high, because the county would not permit more than one cell phone tower on top of a local hill. So the next cell phone company had to build their new cell phone tower in the middle of a wooded lot in the near by valley. Such costs are pass on to cell phone users.

I now have a land line to back up my cell phone. Local land line costs me $29.95 to talk locally when the cell system is over loaded. By having just local service, with out long distance coverage, on my house phone, I do not have to pay a lot of extra federal taxes attached to long distance access.

The idea of sending text messages from one cell phone user in range of the intended receaver, using the same equipment that permits walkie-talkie transmissions sounds like a good idea. But cell phones with the ability to send local text messages to would add to the cost of the cell phone. For those of us who never send text messages, why should we pay the extra price for such software/hardware?