Sep 13, 2001

re: Bell rate cap - Local Phone service

The cost of phone service is excessive. Phone service is not a luxury but is

a necessity to protect life and property. Currently I pay about 27$ a month

or about 324$ a year for a phone that I use about 4 times a month. Bell

should concentrate on providing low cost service, rather than trying to

invent countless services such as call waiting, the internet etc that we all

appear to be subsidizing the research and infrastructure for. The people who

want the extra services should be paying for the infrastructure and research

to support their needs, not the rest of us. By way of comparison, cable TV

is of the same order of cost as Bell service. Cable TV is a luxury and you

can live without it.

Banks were once accused of not having a basic savings account that did not

charge excessive monthly fees that ate away at the savings of clients who

had minimal balances. They were forced to provide minimal service accounts

at low to zero fees. I would suggest that we also need a basic phone service

at minimal cost.

Sincerely,

Gary Won

gary.won@theimo.com