Upon reading a notice in my local paper abou Telus' intention to apply for a review of th right to regulate prices charged fo local phone services, I felt compelled to send this note reguarding my opinion on the subject.  I have read this notice a half a dozen times, but being as that i am not an university educated laywer, still don't quite understand its' intent.  I do want to submit my feelings on the subject of rate increases.

     I live in a rural area of Alberta, close to the Saskatchewan border.  I farm here with my family and 99% of my business calls are long distance. My wife is from an area outside our local calling area so most her calls to family and friends are long distance as well. With internet charges to my phone sevice, my average bill costs me $150 plus a month.  $70.00 on average being long distance calling.  This is about $1800.00 plus per year spent on just telephone services.  The notice says something to the effect about raising local rates 10% per year up to $35.00, well that would be ok if we all got a 10% increase in our wages, but i don't see a 10% increase per year raise for me, now, or in the future, my income rises and falls like a yo-yo.  My local service now including call director and call display is $39.71.  That is just what I pay to HAVE A PHONE SERVICE, let alone 911, long distance sevices, or phoning packages of any sort. As far as I am concerned, any sort of rate hike is just a revenue grab to increase the revenue of shareholders and pad the pockets of executives.  A 10% increase per year, is a guarenteed revenue for shareholders, and that is BS to me, NO ONE guarentees my revenue, but market demand and GOD.  I, have to hope that someone else suffers a crop failure in order for me to benefit. 

     In rural Alberta, we have no competion for phone service or internet providers, just competition for long distance providers, and that did great things to our long distance rates but nothing for service rates. still because I live in a rural area, my long distance costs are huge. If I lived in Edmonton where I would have access to 1 million people and buisness', for a local rate of $35.00, and I was paying at most $10.00 a month in long distance charges, because all my business calls and likely most of my personal calls would be local, I would not object so much.  But, I have local calling access to maybe 10000 people and buisness' at local rates, to me a rate increase of any kind would just be another nail in the coffin for people living in rural areas and another reason to move to bigger urban centers.  In my opinion, we as subscribers to Telus should share equally costs to access other Telus subscibers.  If that means rate hikes for those in urban centers that have call access to 1 million people to subsidize those that have call access to only 1000 or 100 people so be it. Equal cost shared access for all. This is the way our local gas co-op runs. It cost $3500 for gas hookup whether you live 50 feet from the main line or 50 miles and the cost of this gas is the same for all of us, not cheaper for those that live close to the supply and more expensive for those of us who live at the end of the line.  As it sits now, we in rural areas are getting kicked in the but again and again,  we have to pay to live here for everthing we do.  The farther one lives from a major center, the more we have to pay for our goods and services, people can't survive in rural areas,  they the people move to the larger centers because it is cheaper and and more convenient to live, our small towns die it costs more for those of us that still live here because the costs are being shared by fewer people, and more of our tax dollars go to support the popululation base in urban centers.  It' a snowball effect and believe it or not it all starts with companies like Telus.  I don't think you people sitting at your big desks in your high rise office towers in your big cities realize that your 50 cents here, $1 there add up to hundreds of dollars per year for some people, or maybe..........YOU DO! That extra $10.00 on your phone bill might not mean alot but to me, thats $150 a year on top of the $1800 I already pay to enjoy the privelidge of living in 2001.

     I realize I have gotten a bit off track and delved into the cost of living in rural areas, long distance rates and how our local gas co-op works, but we only have one store in town and there are no other stores to shop at, if that store is given free rein to set prices as they see fit, we either pay the price we are told to pay or starve to death. I only can hope that eveyone else in the world has a crop failure but me and I have the only wheat to buy or cattle to by in the country, then the power would be in my hands.