Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Paging - How do you receive?
From: "Jenkins, Matthew" <matthew.jenkins () FAIRMONTSTATE EDU>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 15:09:29 -0400
I hear you on the data plans. Our institution gives us $40/mo to cover a cell phone, which is added onto our salary so it is taxed. That doesn't cover my base plan. As far as Skytel pagers, I believe Skytel is the brand/company my dad used to use about 13 years ago. There is a local company here in our state that is a retailer. His pager would work anywhere. It used low frequencies or something. When you paged him, if he was in a good spot it would page immediately. Otherwise the page would be delayed by a minute. The pager service was expensive but it worked anywhere. Matt Matthew Jenkins Network/Server Administrator Fairmont State University Visit us online at www.fairmontstate.edu <https://fsmail.fairmontstate.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.fairmontstate.edu/> ________________________________ From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv on behalf of Barbara Torney Sent: Mon 7/7/2008 2:53 PM To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Paging - How do you receive? When last we met with the compliance accountants, they told us that only a portion of the cell phone fee had to be reported as imputed income. Check with your advisers. And when you want people to do email, too, that's a costly add on feature. Since I only have my work email account tied to my Treo, that is purely for work; that feature alone is more like $40/month, more than the base cost of the cell service. But to get back to the pagers, does anyone use Skytel pagers? They are expensive, but are supposed to work when other things don't. We keep one of those for the most extreme emergencies. /bat On Mon, 7 Jul 2008, Robert Kalal wrote:
For staffers who don't want to track, report, and reimburse personal use, OSU provides the option of taking a university-provided cell phone as taxable compensation. The cost the university pays for the plan is added to taxable gross income and no records are required. Bob Kalal On Jul 7, 2008, at 1:35 PM, Allison Dolan wrote:"Supposedly The IRS has made cell-phones some sort of taxable benefit" Actually, the IRS has always been able to tax 'perks' that they feel are insufficiently work related (e.g. country club memberships, etc.). Over the past several years, they've looked more closely at cell phone. Given the number of flat rate plans and negotiated contracts, it has been harder to distinguish 'business' from 'personal'. Some places decided to give employees a flat amount per month (e.g. $20) to cover the 'business' use of the cell. Allison F. Dolan Program Director, Protecting Personally Identifiable Information MIT (617) 252-1461 On Jul 7, 2008, at 12:44 PM, Stephen John Smoogen wrote:On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Megan Carney <carn0048 () umn edu> wrote:We use pagers so we our cellphones can remain mostly personal. . .the University no longer reimburses most people for any portion of their cellphone bill.We may be moving to a similar situation. Supposedly The IRS has made cell-phones some sort of taxable benefit so cellphones which are supplied by an employer have to be itemized if they are not strictly controlled.Also, it's lets us have 'groups'. We each have an individual pager number which is kept internally and one number which will page them all and is given out for emergencies while on call.-- Stephen J Smoogen. -- BSD/GNU/Linux How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. = Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice"
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barbara Torney phone: 212-678-3487 Director, Administrative Information Services fax: 212-678-3243 Teachers College, Columbia University 212-678-4048 525 West 120 Street, Box 43 email: bt42 () columbia edu New York, NY 10027 room: 241 Horace Mann
Current thread:
- Re: Paging - How do you receive?, (continued)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Greg Schaffer (Jul 04)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Gary Flynn (Jul 07)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Cal Frye (Jul 07)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Don Westlight (Jul 07)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Megan Carney (Jul 07)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Stephen John Smoogen (Jul 07)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Mike Iglesias (Jul 07)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Allison Dolan (Jul 07)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Robert Kalal (Jul 07)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Barbara Torney (Jul 07)
- Re: Paging - How do you receive? Jenkins, Matthew (Jul 07)