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[08] HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RUN SDF?

     So you're curious?  Well, hopefully you'll be more willing to
     donate if you know what it cost to run SDF.  I'm looking for
     ways to make this information a bit more public so that it will
     hopefully increase donations.

     In the old days, when we had 9 telephone lines, the cost was
     relatively high.  GTE phone lines could be as cheap as $24 a
     month, but SWBell lines could be $9.99 a month.  How?  Because
     I stripped everything off even DTMF (touch tone) dialing!  But
     I still remember the nightmare of $380 a month phone bills.

     ISDN was about $48 a month and would be later used to replace
     two analogue lines (an analogue phone line could run over a single
     B channel).  No real savings with GTE, but nonetheless was tried.
     So here are the rough numbers .. keep in mind this doesn't include
     hardware, which in our current setup has an estimated value of
     $104,992 ..

     Old Days .. 1991-1993 (when we went multiline):
 
     Rent:        $4200 a year 
     Phones:      $1344 a year  (four/five lines GTE)
     Electricity:  $180 a year
     Network:        $0 a year  (thank you Eric, Doug & Roy)
     -------------------------
     Total:       $6084 

     1994-1996

     Rent:        $5580 a year
     Phones:      $1320 a year  (nine/ten lines SWB)
     ISDN:         $576 a year
     Electricity:  $200 a year
     Network:        $0 a year  (thank you Eric & Aaron)
     -------------------------
     Total:       $7876

     1997-2000

     Rent:           $0 a year  (thank you MALR)
     ISDN:         $600 a year  (two phone lines GTE)
     DSL:         $3588 a year  (768k/256k)
     Electricity:  $230 a year
     -------------------------
     Total:       $4878

     2001-2003

     Rent:       $14436 a year  (includes circuit provision)
     DSL:         $3480 a year  (1.5mbit/1.5mbit)
     Electricity   $360 a year
     -------------------------
     Total:      $18276
 
     2003
 
     Rent:       $15000 a year  (includes multi-DS3 circuit provision)
     DSL:         $1080 a year  (1.5mbit/384kbit) (not our main connection)
     Misc:         $248 a year
     -------------------------
     Total:      $16328

  Interested in helping out now?  Try typing 'pledge'.  Thank you!!


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