PhillyDeals: Philly, TracFone work to reconnect deal

Pay-as-you-go mobile-phone vendor

TracFone Wireless Inc.

says Philadelphia dragged its feet when the Miami company asked permission last year to give free, government-subsidized mobile phones to poor people.

Florida, Massachusetts, Atlanta, New York City, and Chester and Montgomery Counties, among other places, approved the TracFone program, called

SafeLink

, said TracFone lobbyist

Jose Fuentes

.

But Philadelphia, and some other Pennsylvania counties, wouldn't sign up.

Philadelphia officials "told us they were concerned they'd get sued," Fuentes said. "It's ridiculous."

But

Doug Oliver

, spokesman for

Mayor Nutter

, said the delay is TracFone's fault.

"We support the idea of giving lower-income Philadelphians better access to emergency services by providing free cell phones," Oliver said. "However, TracFone has been unwilling to rigorously test their phones' ability to access emergency services regardless of their activation status as required by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to be eligible to receive a government subsidy." Without those tests, "it would be irresponsible," Oliver said.

And no, it's not good enough if TracFone is good enough for New York or Atlanta. Philly says they gotta work here.

TracFone says its SafeLink wireless service is subsidized by a federal program that pays phone companies $8.25 per low-income Pennsylvania customer per month, to give more access to 911 emergency service and other basic needs.

Some phone companies use the subsidy to offer cut-rate service to qualified callers; TracFone offers a free phone, plus 42 minutes of free use each month, in hopes they'll buy additional minutes.

I wrote about the back-and-forth for philly.com last week. Yesterday, Fuentes said the city has agreed to field-test five TracFones. The city "says it will take three weeks," Fuentes said. "We're willing to wait three weeks. We'll call them. There'll be no excuse."

TracFone is a scrappy, competitive U.S. arm of Mexico's

America Movil-Telmex

phone monopoly, owned by billionaire, former CompUSA owner and recent New York Times investor

Carlos Slim Helu

.

In Harrisburg, both Republicans and Democrats are acting surprised that

Gov. Rendell

, a Democrat, is demanding givebacks from state workers and threatening mass firings, says GOP political consultant

Joe Carduff.

"People forget that Rendell successfully dealt with unions in the past, to the advantage of the City of Philadelphia and the taxpayers of Philadelphia. He sees an opportunity to do the same thing here," said Carduff.

Carduff blames "the lack of institutional memory in this town [Harrisburg]" for any shock at the demand for givebacks.

In their book

Revolution at the Roots

, conservative writers

William Eggers

and

John O'Leary

said Rendell saw Philadelphia's 1992 fiscal meltdown as an opportunity to remake government: "Rendell used the crisis to take on a host of sacred cows. He took an approach considered suicide for an urban Democrat - he took on the city's police, fire and municipal unions.

"Rendell took his case to the people," and told them "city workers enjoyed better pay, holidays, and benefits than the private sector - not to mention job security. Rendell annoyed the unions immensely," according to the book.

A brief strike brought a quick settlement. And Rendell secured $353 million in wage concessions.

Rendell will need more than that - plus his proposed natural-gas-well and cigar taxes - to fill the state's multi-billion-dollar budget hole.

The headlines say

Macy's

is cutting 7,000 jobs. But things are more complicated.

Macy's is actually ending more than 8,000 jobs. But it is adding another 1,200 to two new layers of regional offices, in a complex de-centralization campaign - called "MyMacy's," according to the company.

In Cincinnati, "nearly 40 percent of executive positions are being eliminated," Macy's said in a statement. Meanwhile, the company is breaking the chain into 69 districts of 10 to 12 stores each, and six regions (the nearest to us are based in New York and Pittsburgh) to run the districts - each with a couple of dozen new executives (some already hired) to run the local teams.

Will that be simpler? Maybe not. Will it be more flexible, closer to the customer? That's what Macy's hopes.