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Phone Service
 Local Service: Quest Cox   Long Distance     Other Utilities

Local Service

Provider: Qwest (formerly USWest)
http://www.uswest.com/residential/indexa.html
Billing (800)339-3929
Sales and Service (800) 244-1111

Qwest (formerly USWest) has until recently been the only phone service option for residents of Red Mountain Ranch. Cox  Communications, the provider of cable services, now offers phone service as well.

Below is an example bill for normal single line residential service. There are many options which are described in detail on the Quest web site.

Example Phone Charges - Single Residential Line Service ( No options) Residence Line $13.18 Federal Charge - Service Provider Number Portability .43 Subtotal $13.61     Federal Access Charge 6.00 Arizona Universal Service Fund ($.01 per line) .01 Telecom Services Excise Tax .55 Subtotal $19.17     Federal Excise Tax (3%) .66 State Tax (5.6%) .77 City Tax (1.5%) .21 County Tax (0.7%) .10     Total Compare to Cox $19.57. - see below $21.91

Second Line Issues Did you know that the federal access charges are higher on a second line? The federal access charges on a  first line are $5.00. They are $6.70 on the second line. Qwest charges $20.19 for second line (including Federal access charge). A second line costs $13.45 from Cox.  These figures take the basic line charges of $13.18 and $6.75 and add $6.70. You still have to add other charges and taxes to these totals. Estimated totals are shown below. Not included is the one-time cost of of installation which is at least $46.50 with Qwest and $10 at present from Cox. Qwest Total Montly Cost $23.36 Cox Total Monthly Cost $15.90

"Watch out. It's buyer beware in the matter of understanding this stuff. The good news is that Qwest rates were lowered $3.00 per month retroactive to 4/01/2001. It takes reading the fine print in the Cox print materials to figure how how Cox gets its suggested 30% savings number. Trying to get exact cost information from either Cox or Qwest  isn't easy. Be sure you figure any costs on the options you are going to use as option prices differ between the vendors. - Arthur Heath

Provider Cox Communications
http://www.cox.com/phoenix
(602) 795-7960

Cox Communications now offers digital phone service to the Red Mountain Ranch community with a $10 activation cost. Cox claims to offer a savings of up to  30% over Qwest, a second line for $6.50 and a money-back guarantee.

A single line residence phone costs $11.75 compared to the Qwest charge of $13.18 as shown above. Other charges shown above are comparable, although the taxes are applied on a lower total so the monthly charge is $19.57 vs $22.91., for a potential savings of 7.8%. Cox's suggested savings of 30% comes from an installation of two lines as well as voice mail service. A fair comparison requires using actual services that a resident intends to order. Cox seems to offer savings on some options such as a second line $6.75 vs. $16.18, voice mail $4.95 vs. $6.95, call waiting $5.00 vs. $5.95, and caller ID $5.00 vs $5.95. Both Qwest and Cox promote bundled services including two lines with option packages.
 

"Phone service from a cable line? You may be surprised to know that Cox runs a separate line to the area for digital phone service. It claims that phone service isn't affected by cable TV outages. Inside the house, you still connect your phones to the existing wall jacks, not your TV cable. What do you think? Trust the cable company with your phone service?" - Arthur Heath

Long Distance

Provider: Many
You can of course choose from many long distance providers.

"Want to research this one?. Click here" - Arthur Heath