Mink, LA, Gets Phone Service

Annoyed that you can't get DSL service in your area? Be glad you haven't lived in Mink, Louisiana, all these years. The rural town has just gotten telephone service -- that's plain old telephone service -- after campaigning for it since 1970. BellSouth Corp. recently wired the isolated hamlet at a cost of $700,000, or $47,000 per phone (a cost that will be subsidized by other Louisiana phone customers). And you thought the new Motorola Razr cell phones were pricey!

The state has set up a commission to look into ensuring that all its residents have phone service of some kind, simply as a public safety measure. Another unwired rural town, Shaw, got a cell phone tower recently after a resident had a heart attack and died before an EMT crew could be contacted.

As we ponder the 21st century, it's instructive to realize that many of our citizens -- even here in the US -- are barely in the 19th or 20th centuries when it comes to some technologies. Understanding that will help us to better apply technology in a meaningful way.

Source: CNN.com
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