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Globeandmail.com

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POSTED AT 3:44 PM EDT Monday, July 23, 2001

N.S. resident fights to keep 911 working

By DARREN YOURK
Globe and Mail Update

Panic swept over Bob Wulkowicz when he didn't hear a dial tone.

The Chicago native had just awoken in the middle of the night with severe
chest pains and struggled to the phone to call for help. Barely able to
breathe, he put the receiver to his ear and heard nothing.

The phone company had mistakenly disconnected his service.

"I thought I'd had a heart attack," Mr. Wulkowicz said. "I was home alone
at the time because my wife was out of town. I was really upset, and I
ended up out in the middle of the night in the cold at a pay phone trying
to get the phone company to hook my phone back up. It was unsettling and
unnerving."

Illinois Bell had mistakenly credited the credits from all three of Mr.
Wulkowicz's home phone lines to one phone number instead of allotting them
proportionately.

"The service department is instructed not to listen to people who call and
plead," Mr. Wulkowicz said. "They had shut it off because they thought I
was a deadbeat. It was a data entry error on their part."

The life-changing event happened more than a decade ago. Mr. Wulkowicz, a
self-described "recovering bureaucrat" now living in a remote part of
Guysborough County in northeastern Nova Scotia, has been on a mission to
ensure that 911 calls can be made from any phone, connected or
disconnected, ever since.

"I'm living in a place where neighbours live far apart," Mr. Wulkowicz
said of his new community. "The volunteer services take some time to
respond, so it sure seemed to me that it was ultracritical to be able to
call 911. Nobody has any business disconnecting your 911 access to it
because they think they have some right to do it over a billing dispute.

"Nobody deserves to die because a phone company has some policy about
disconnecting your phone."

After his scare in 1988, Mr. Wulkowicz launched a one-man campaign in
Illinois. He did extensive research on emergency call cases and found that
as many 30,000 people in Chicago were without phones at any given time for
various reasons.

He sued Illinois Bell, asking that the company be required to always leave
the phone dial tone in place so emergency calls could be made. Armed with
petitions and the support of Chicago city council and the state's attorney
general, he ended up in front of the Illinois Commerce Commission arguing
for his case.

"The phone company was a pretty powerful lobby so I lost," Mr. Wulkowicz
said. 'As a little guy I didn't make it, but my son was going to school in
Vermont and decided to do the same thing there. It exists as law there
now. He got it through. I was tired and bitter about losing, but his
success inspires me to keep going."

His batteries recharged, Maritime Telephone and Telegraph in his new home
province is the next target for the city boy turned rural crusader.

"Back when I first started this, I had a number of technical issues to
deal with," he said. "But today in Nova Scotia they only have digital
machines in their central offices. It wouldn't cost them anything in the
sense that if someone disconnects or reconnects your phone they aren't out
fooling around with wires or climbing ladders. It can all be done in the
central office in the blink of an electronic eye."

MTT spokesperson Lynn Coveyduck said Monday that the company intends to
listen to Mr. Wulkowicz's proposal.

"He's put a a message in with us and we will follow up with him," Ms.
Coveyduck said. " As a company, we're always interested in what our
customer's have to say about how we can improve our service. The
possibility is out there, but we have to investigate it further." Mr.
Wulkowicz points out that anyone with a working cell phone can call 911,
whether or not they are connected with a company.

"If your battery works, you can call for help," Mr. Wulkowicz said. "Yet
we don't give people that in the supposed safety and security in their own
homes. It is a blind spot, and we need to change it."

Bell Canada spokesman Andrew Cole said in Toronto that although he sees
value in the continuous emergency service, right now if customers don't
pay they aren't keeping a dial tone on their phones.

"Any time you have a standard phone service you pay for, part of that cost
is for the 911 service, Mr. Cole said. "Keep in mind that in terms of
telecom providers around the world, Canadians pay some of the lowest
basic-service fees anywhere. Part of that service is one of the most
outstanding 911 services around."

Retired from the Chicago Park District, Mr. Wulkowicz now spends his time
writing and lecturing about environmental issues. He hopes he can make a
difference in his adoptive home.

"I came here to enjoy the serenity and raw beauty," he said. "I just want
to try to fix some little things for people who have quiet voices. There's
no question that we can save someone's life. I've learned my lessons and
this time I intend to get this through."

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