By JENNIFER McKEE of the Missoulian State Bureau

HELENA — Long-distance phone rates for men incarcerated at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge are nearly 16 times higher than those charged outside the prison system, figures show.

Although rates vary depending on where in the state an inmate wishes to call, a typical 15-minute phone call from the prison to Billings costs $16.41, said Gary Willems, manager of the Department of Corrections contracts division. The fee consists of a $3.95 connection fee which includes the first minute of the call and 89 cents a minute after that.

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Harrisburg, Pa. — Philadelphia’s plan to offer inexpensive wireless Internet as a municipal service — the most ambitious yet by a major U.S. city — has collided with commercial interests including the local phone company, Verizon Communications Inc.
Regional and long-distance phone companies, who sell broadband Internet to consumers and businesses, have in recent months intensified a national campaign to quash municipal wireless initiatives like Philadelphia’s as dozens of cities and towns have either begun or announced such plans — from San Francisco to Chaska, Minn., to St. Cloud, Fla.

Telecommunications companies are doubly worried because hundreds of other municipalities provide broadband service over cable or telephone lines.

The idea of cheap, municipally provided Internet as a social leveler is particularly appealing to big city politicians.

«We looked at it as a way to be a city, literally, of the 21st century,» said Barbara Grant, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street. «We wanted to bridge the digital divide for residents who wouldn’t have access to the Internet, particularly schoolchildren.»

Plus, the service could help make Philadelphia «hip» enough to stem the exodus of college graduates, she said.

But the telecom industry calls such public-sector projects unfair competition.

A chief complaint: a city can draw on taxpayer dollars, while a private company has to pay interest on borrowed capital.

Consumer advocates say cheap Wi-Fi fills a need the private sector has no intention of meeting.

«They’re saying, ’You provide it to any place we can’t or won’t, but you can’t charge a fee,»’ said Edward Schwartz, a member of Philadelphia’s wireless task force. «How does that work?»

By Marc Levy
Associated Press

By KIMBERLY BLANTON The Boston Globe

FAIRHAVEN, Mass. — Michael Brightman is reminded daily that workers in New Delhi do the same job he does.

His Indian counterparts routinely direct AT&T customers to him for long-distance billing problems that the New Delhi workers can’t answer.

Brightman and 139 others will be laid off this month from AT&T’s call center on Massachusetts’ southeastern coast. AT&T said the work force reduction resulted from a July decision to phase out residential long-distance service.

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New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has decided to slash tariffs for leased line based Virtual Private Network (VPN) services by about 50 per cent from December 1.

The move would benefit corporate houses, which would now be able to take a 2Mbps connection from BSNL for as low as Rs 3.5 lakh per year compared to the existing tariff of Rs 6 lakh per annum.

The higher standard VPN services with 99 per cent assured quality level would cost Rs 7 lakh a year compared to Rs 12 lakh at present. The move is aimed at reducing the gap with the tariffs offered by private Internet Service Providers (ISP). VPN services are used by corporates to link up their retail chain and branch offices on a secure and dedicated communication network. Until now, private Internet Service Providers such as Sify have dominated the VPN market owing to lower cost of operations compared to long distance operators who are also competing for a share of this segment.

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BY JOHN MORAN
THE HARTFORD COURANT

Own a telephone, someone once said, and you give 6 billion people the right to wake you up in the middle of the night. Fortunately, most can’t be bothered.

But even that possibility highlights what a stupid and unruly brute the traditional telephone is. Someone calls, the phone rings, and you are bound to answer it — or at least be interrupted by it.

Internet telephone service — otherwise known as voice over Internet protocol, or more simply VOIP — promises to change all that, offering consumers sweeping and sophisticated control over how the phone works at an affordable price.

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