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City Revokes Employee Texting Plans

by Will Safer on July 18, 2008 at 11:04 AM



Most cell phone carriers have plans that allow for unlimited e-mail and instant messaging, but text messages typically still cost users on a per message basis. This charge has caught up with the city employees of Troy, N.Y., in a big way, with costs peaking at more than $1,000 in recent months.

The result? Troy city officials have revoked the text messaging privileges of employees.

Deputy mayor Dan Crawley announced that those employees who need immediate contact capability for the jobs, namely code enforcement officers, community police, emergency personnel, and top-level employees, who already have e-mail-enabled BlackBerry devices, will have to rely on the communications options that come with unlimited use under the city plan (no word on which carrier the city uses). Unlimited text messaging is typically an added feature which costs an additional fee.

"If you can e-mail, you have no reason to text," said Crawley. "Every time an employee sent a text message, it cost the city money, but by removing the ability we've taken that the temptation to use that form of communication away."

Cell phones and wireless plans are, in theory, much cheaper than providing each employee with a walkie-talkie, which could cost as much as $800 per unit. But with the ability to send a text message, that cost savings was being negated. [Source: Textually.org.]

Tags: cell phone, CellPhone, instant messaging, InstantMessaging, text message, TextMessage, wireless plan, WirelessPlan

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