Tom, in DC "Economy 1" service costs $6.00 a month. No bells and whistles and you pay 6 cents a call. Local calling only. With taxes and surcharges that's no more than $12.00 a month.
I suggest $12 a month is reasonable for security. Further I suspect one can still call toll free numbers, meaning that a long distance calling card becomes a real option for emergency calls to let's say your offspring in California. Six cents a call is also cheaper than most cell phone plans for minutes albeit with no long distance service. I believe ATT and Qwest offer similar plans.
I'm quite willing to pay six cents to be able to call police, fire or an ambulance and so are most reasonable folk.
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