Tiny Louisiana Community (Finally) Gets Telephone Service

AP ^ | 1/30/05

[KidGlock]

Today: January 30, 2005 at 16:31:15 PST

Tiny Louisiana Community Gets Telephone Service

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINK, La. (AP) - There's a fish-fry Monday in this hamlet of 15 households to celebrate big news: phone service. Gov. Kathleen Blanco plans to call 83-year-old Mink resident Alma Louise Bolton from Baton Rouge to mark the occasion, which finally connects one of the nation's last rural areas without access to regular phone service.

"We started in early 1970 trying to get a phone," Bolton said. "We'd talk to the phone company but they'd never call back. Some in the community bought CBs (citizen band radios). We tried those for a while."

BellSouth Corp. has spent $700,000 - or about $47,000 per phone - to extend about 30 miles of cable through thick forests to Mink, about 100 miles south of Shreveport. All phone customers in the state will cover the cost through a small monthly charge on their bills.

Lawrence St. Blanc, secretary for the Public Service Commission, which regulates utility and telecommunications companies in the state, said the monthly charge should be less than a dollar a month.

The commission has set up a fund where the money will be deposited to ensure that the poor and people in rural areas continue to have access to telephones. It will both subsidize their rates and repay phone companies when the cost of connecting isolated rural pockets to residential phone service exceeds $1,500 per phone.

Tucked away in the Kisatchie National Forest near the Texas state line, Mink is the last settlement of full-time residents in Louisiana without phone service, St. Blanc said.

"At least that we know about," he said.

Another small community called Shaw, about 80 miles to the east, recently got a cell phone tower for its few year-round residents and many hunting camps.

"It's wonderful," said Judy Ballard, 58, who lives in Shaw. "But it took me losing my husband" to get the service.

For years, she and others in the area had lobbied the PSC for some kind of phone service. Then Ballard's husband, Mike, had a heart attack in May 1998.

A neighbor raced to the top of a levee to try to get a cellular phone signal from anywhere. The 911 operator he reached was in Mississippi, and it took 90 minutes for an emergency crew to arrive.

[Brian328i]

"We started in early 1970 trying to get a phone," Bolton said. "We'd talk to the phone company but they'd never call back. ...
Oh really huh?

[Political Junkie Too]

Gov. Kathleen Blanco plans to call 83-year-old Mink resident Alma Louise Bolton from Baton Rouge to mark the occasion...

The second caller was a telemarketer selling credit cards.

-PJ

[CT CONSERVATIVE]

SNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[Mark]

Oh, somebody has got to say it.

Can you hear me now?

[sittnick]

In 1970, I could understand. But wouldn't it have been cheaper to put up a cell tower and give everyone fre cell phones?

[konaice]

A cell tower would have been a quarter of the cost...

[ikka]

BellSouth Corp. has spent $700,000 - or about $47,000 per phone - to extend about 30 miles of cable through thick forests to Mink, about 100 miles south of Shreveport. All phone customers in the state will cover the cost through a small monthly charge on their bills.

The stupidity of the phone company comes thru loud and clear. Microwave transmission is used all over the place in Louisiana. Two small towers, one at each end, plus $20K in equipment and the problem would have been solved. Then again, it's not BellSouth's money - everyone in the state is paying for it.

[Emmett McCarthy]

So now residents can call "Uncle Daddy" to tell him which one of their cousins they're planning to marry?

[Blue Collar Christian]

They don't know how good they had it...

[KidGlock]

In 1970, I could understand. But wouldn't it have been cheaper to put up a cell tower and give everyone free cell phones?

Dateline 2035: Small community finally gets dial up internet.

[libertyman]

Do they have running water yet????

[bert]

SBC announced the purchase of AT&T

[bad company]

We'd talk to the phone company but they'd never call back

Well, you didn't have a phone son. They couldn't call you back.

[Unknown Freeper]

Don't anybody tell them about high-speed. They'll be thrilled with the dial-up for at least another twenty years. lol.

As others have stated, why couldn't they just have put up the towers and given them cell phones? And another thing, it says the other residents of the state "will be paying" for this. Haven't people been getting taxed/charged for things like this for years?

[Yak]

The stupidity of the phone company comes thru loud and clear.

Not really . . . no rational manager would spend this kind of money for this little payoff without the influence n of . . . you guessed it . . . the GOVERNMENT. The Louisana PUC certainly had an influence here, and the local Telcos still must answer to state and federal commissions. Plus, like ikka said, it isn't Bell South's $$$, the ratepayers will be footing the bill.

[rawhide]

Well, I am sure some people in a few years, will probably look upon yesterday, when there was no phone service, to being the good old days. Phone service will change a lot things, some good, some bad.

[honest2God]

Anyone who's had to deal with phone companies know that it is their policy to hire the most inept people possible and provide service in the most inefficient way imaginable.

[chemicalman]

BellSouth Corp. has spent $700,000 - or about $47,000 per phone - to extend about 30 miles of cable through thick forests to Mink, about 100 miles south of Shreveport. All phone customers in the state will cover the cost through a small monthly charge on their bills.

Bullshiet... They say it costs that much so they can charge the customers more for their profit. Really doubt it costs 700k.