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<br />Oommunlcatlon Breakdown
<br />
<br />Comparing three'public entities: the
<br />World Trade Center in New York,
<br />Duke University in Durham, N.C., and
<br />the city of Cheyenne, Wyo. show rev~
<br />enues can be generated from informa~
<br />tion partnerships. They each employ
<br />nearly 26,000 telephone lines, but the
<br />revenues they derive from their
<br />telecommunications systems vary
<br />widely. For example, The World Trade
<br />Center Telecommunications Center
<br />generates $12.6 million in revenues for
<br />the Port Authority of New York. Duke
<br />University enjoys revenues of $6.4 mil-
<br />lion from its telephone operation,
<br />while Cheyenne receives just $136,000
<br />annually in easement and franchise
<br />rights from US West, which they col-
<br />lect as taxes from subscribers.
<br />"We would be pretty stupid selling
<br />off our phone system and going back to
<br />relying on the Bells," says a telecom
<br />manager at Duke University. "Besides,
<br />our department heads would scream
<br />at the new rates."
<br />When cities control their own
<br />telecommunications operations, their
<br />ability to purchase local and long-dis-
<br />tance services "wholesale" can result
<br />in substantial cost savings. Telecom-
<br />munications trunk lines (bundling of
<br />telecommunication lines) may be
<br />pooled to achieve maximum use, there-
<br />by cutting down on the number of
<br />trunk lines, with the subsequent sav-
<br />ings passed on to customers.
<br />Since the city owns and adminlsters
<br />its telecommunications network, the
<br />city - not the telephone company-
<br />receives the revenues and proceeds
<br />from the use of the network.
<br />Current telephone rates are based
<br />on the telephone companies' need to
<br />sustain a satisfactory level of service
<br />while generating a profit for their
<br />shareholders. Cities, by contrast,
<br />would negotiate contracts with private
<br />telephone management companies to
<br />manage and market the network,
<br />thereby lowering end-user rates,
<br />By organizing the collective telecom-
<br />munications needs of its citizens, then
<br />purchasing services and products at
<br />"wholesale" rates, cities and counties
<br />can furnish a more efficient and full-
<br />featured telephone network than even
<br />its largest businesses could justify.
<br />Network users would share both the
<br />cost of providing the network as well
<br />as the savings and economies of Bcale
<br />the network affords,
<br />Furthermore, the city can reduce 10-
<br />calline costs by purchasing wholesale
<br />or bulk trunking services from the re-
<br />gional Bell company just as most mod-
<br />ern businesses do today, In essence,
<br />the local government would become
<br />the lines between the individual user
<br />and the trunk supplied by the telecom-
<br />munications provider.
<br />Economies of scale are derived
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<br />40
<br />
<br />Cellular Call Boxes: Calls From the Wild
<br />
<br />loday's newest technology allows
<br />cellular phones to be placed in
<br />critical locations where there are no
<br />regular public pay phones: parking
<br />lots, beaches, marinas, airports, hike
<br />and bike trails, college campuses,
<br />bridges, tunnels. anywhere there is
<br />a need for I'(jmote communications.
<br />The phones are programmed to di-
<br />rectly contact a dispatch center for
<br />any emergency call. Because these
<br />cellular call boxes are usually span-
<br />
<br />
<br />GTE
<br />UsIng a cellular call box duIIng an
<br />~. the caller lI>automalk:ally
<br />connected to a local dllpalch ~ for
<br />Immediate help.
<br />
<br />sored or funded by the local govern-
<br />ment or business entity responsible
<br />for the safety of people in a particu-
<br />lar location or area, the service is
<br />free to the user.
<br />Emergency call boxes use today's
<br />maturing cellular telephone net-
<br />works as the link for wireless tele-
<br />phone-quality voice communication
<br />from almost any location without the
<br />expensive trenching of land line sys-
<br />teme. Additionally, an advanced pho-
<br />tovoltaic (solar power) panel
<br />
<br />when, even as the number of cus-
<br />tomers increases, the number of
<br />trunks required to provide service de-
<br />creases. The premise of trunking is
<br />simply that all telephones are not UBed
<br />at the same time. Given typical calling
<br />patterns, one trunk line can service
<br />about 17 residences or seven business-
<br />es, As the number of trunk lines in-
<br />creases, hQwever, the per-line cost to
<br />the individual or business decreases,
<br />taking advantage of the dynamics of
<br />pooled services.
<br />For example, a small business with
<br />one to five lines coming into an office
<br />might have to pay about $36 per line,
<br />which would give the office access to
<br />one trunk line, However, when that
<br />small business is paired with 250 oth-
<br />er businesses about the same size, the
<br />per-line cost could drop to as low as
<br />$12.75, with the business sharing ac-
<br />cess to up to 38 trunk lines, If pooled
<br />with 500 businesses, costs could drop
<br />
<br />recharges the 12-volt battery system,
<br />thereby reducing the need for elee-
<br />tricallines and connections. It is fur-
<br />ther enhanced by an ìntemaJ micro-
<br />processor that provides "smart" ca-
<br />pabilities such as self-diagnostic
<br />analysis of the call box system, vital
<br />functions which are reported to a
<br />maintenance computer. This main-
<br />tenance computer also can be used to
<br />remotely reprogram the call box.
<br />For highway use, the smart can
<br />box also can be made to collect
<br />weather and traffic data from engi-
<br />neering sensors and download the
<br />data to a traffic operation center or
<br />changeable message sign. This is
<br />currently being tested in the new In-
<br />telligent Vehicle Highway System
<br />(IVHS) field trials sponsored by the
<br />Federal Highway Administration.
<br />Communication terminals are
<br />ho~sed in independent units molded
<br />from Lexan Polycarbonate, a formu-
<br />lation by General Electric. The ma-
<br />terial holds no salvage temptation
<br />like aluminum boxes and further re-
<br />sist vandals by requiring special
<br />tools and keys to get to the interior
<br />è'r¡uipment.
<br />Today, there are more than 12,000
<br />call boxes being used in the United
<br />States. They stand ready to deter
<br />criminal activity, help prevent traf-
<br />fic congestion and speed life-saving
<br />emergency services to accident
<br />scenes. 0
<br />
<br />This article was written by Leigh
<br />Johnson. marketing manager with
<br />GTE Government Info1'mation Ser-
<br />vices Call Box Group, Irvine, Calif.
<br />
<br />to as low as $11,79 per line.
<br />The same traffic-engineering dy-
<br />namic also applies to long distance ser-
<br />vice. Since long-distance traffic volume
<br />per station is much less than local ser-
<br />vice, even large businesses can benefit
<br />from pooling services, The potential
<br />economies of pooling long-distance
<br />traffic include higher trunk use, bulk
<br />buying at a discounted price, traffic
<br />balancing to obtain even distribution
<br />of calls and higher usage rates. Most
<br />subscribers can count on savings of 25
<br />percent to 50 percent in their long-dis-
<br />tance charges.
<br />But, perhaps the most exciting ad-
<br />vantage to forming and building infor-
<br />mation partnerships is the increased
<br />power the cities will give their citizens
<br />as the world stands on the brink of the
<br />Information Age, With the addition of
<br />new technology such as wide-band
<br />fiber-optic cable, many cities will be
<br />able to offer security or convenience
<br />
<br />JUly 1"4 AMERICAN CITY. COUNTY
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