:               WOULD WIRETAP CHIP BE COST-EFFECTIVE?

:   SUMMARY: Compared to an average monthly phone bill of sixty dollars,
:   wiretaps are only worth two cents a month to police.  So the
:   proposed wiretap chip must raise phone costs by less than one part 
:   in three thousand to be cost-effective. 

Robin's calculation is interesting and important, even if it's off by
an order of magnitude (for example).

Even if hardware costs for the Clipper Chip phones were ZERO, the
protocol overhead in transmitting the escrow field would be much
higher than the 1 part in 3 thousand...it depends on the exact details
of the phone call length, protocol, etc. (shorter calls get a
proportionately greater hit).

However, I suspect most Americans will not find this line of reasoning
as persuasive as the analogies about escrowing keys to one's house
are.

-Tim May

