Telephone Ripoff in Iraq

[thedrifter]

02-15-2005

Guest Column: Telephone Ripoff in Iraq



By Anne Smith



I am a military wife and stay-at-home mother, and my husband is currently deployed and serving in Iraq. As you can probably imagine, our soldiers and their families look forward to the phone calls home to talk to their loved ones and know that everything is OK.



While my husband has been deployed, we have had to pay for AT&T phone cards, and although the minutes on the cards say 1,000 minutes, in reality it is only 100 minutes due to the charges the company places on overseas calls. To make matters worse, AT&T has set up payphones at these camps and military bases making it easier for the soldiers to call home, but have monopolized the market by allowing only AT&T calling cards to be used. Cheaper calling cards like MCI cannot be used at their payphones, leaving families like mine having to pay $200 or more a month to add minutes on the calling cards.



The soldiers in my husband’s unit, HHC 2nd Battalion 112th Armor, 36th Infantry Division stationed at Tallil airbase in Iraq, are trying very hard to get satellite phones to set up, allowing soldiers to call home, video conference, and internet access from their tents for a minimal cost.



While the U.S. military has made great effort to set up internet cafes and a cheaper phone line, they only are able to set up a few, leaving most soldiers waiting hours just to get online or on the cheaper phone line. With only two or three phone lines and hundreds of soldiers, it is difficult to get a chance to use them.



As a wife and as a mother, I see the importance of soldiers being able to talk to their wives and children as often as they can, without the guilt of hiking up phone bills. Not only does it put their minds at ease knowing that all is OK at home, but it boosts morale and allows them to focus on getting the job done and coming home safely.



I am quite frankly disappointed with AT&T, to say the least, and I will never use their services or products again. They have cornered the market and made a lot of profit off of our soldiers at their families’ expense, and I am asking for help to put an end to it. While the satellite is fairly inexpensive once service is established, it is the actual setting up and buying the hardware that is the costly aspect of it.



I am raising money for our soldiers in order to help them achieve this goal, and to take the burden off their families to come up with the money on their own, myself included. Fortunately, a few of the soldiers (including my husband) were computer experts before going to war and are happy to set it up for the soldiers.



I would like to get enough satellites and laptops so we can set up at least one in every tent (there are approx 15-30 soldiers per tent) a computer with internet access, so every soldier has internet access, as well as cameras and the hardware for video calls to loved ones without waiting for hours, sometimes days for a few minutes online. Not only is this invaluable for our soldiers, but it is for their families as well. Please help us reach this goal. A year and a half is a long time to be away from your family.



Please help us make this time pass a little easier, and give us wives the ability to keep our soldiers’ minds at ease and on their jobs instead of worrying about their family.



If you would like to donate money, please e-mail me for my home address, or you can donate via paypal to an account specifically set up for this project. If using paypal, send to the e-mail address: formysoldier@usa.com.



Any new computer supplies would also be greatly appreciated. One hundred percent of all donations will go directly to this project. I would be happy to talk to anyone and answer any questions. You can e-mail me: formysoldier@usa.com or my personal e-mail address: annemarlee@mail.com.



Send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com.

Ellie

[hrscowboy]

OMG get over it lady your lucky your even getting to talk to him anyway why dont you whine alittle more. wha wha wha.

[Ed Palmer]

Be nice Cowboy

[sm@@thrider]

hell AT&T are bought out so it will be funny for her now. just get a walmart calling card. lol

[al20852]

Doubt if AT&T is making much mioney on this despite the rates charged. The infrastructure costs must be enormous. Could it be made easier and maybe cheaper? Yes. Could the government subsidize it? Yes. But I doubt if there was ever a war fought by the US where our troops had more ways to instantly contact and speak to their families back home. If you call once in a while, and use e-mail, which costs nothing, the rest of the time, that should work, and you will be far ahead of what the families of those who fought in WWII, Korea, or Viet-Nam were able to do.

Bottom line is you can tear yourself apart over these types of issues, or be thankfukl that you actually can talk and communicate with your loved one on a regular basis. I suggest you do the latter and stop eating yourself up.

[Ed Palmer]

Gee is it so hard to figure out that you can talk through the computer? we use it to converse all of the time A $ 2.00 adapter and a $12.00 head set and you can talk on the internet all day with no cost.