said by elray 
:Depends on your perspective.
When your landline is a matter of life-and-death, as it is for most "old" people, $7 a month is a small price to pay to have the right to yell back at 611 to send bucket trucks and supervisors in the rain on Sunday to fix the d*** line for the 5th time in a month without having to have the usual debate about where the trouble is.
I hate to waste money on fraudulent charges like wire maintenance, but sometimes it is justified.
Most people don't realize that everything from the box on the side of the house to the poll is the phone company's responsibility anyways. The wire maintenance fee only applies to the wiring INSIDE the house and the jacks and if my mother needs to have those fixed I'm very capable of doing that myself and I won't charge her a dime. In the 5 years since she's stopped paying she's saved over $400. That's REAL money and she's never needed any "wire maintenance" in that time anyways.
