Techonology is great...

[Roundabout]

We have a law over here that no cell phone provider can refuse a 911 call, so you buy this cheap cell phone for $15 (or whatever) and pop it into your glove compartment, or put it upstairs in the nightstand. No plan to buy, no monthly fee, but you have that link if you need it.

Exactly what I mentioned I'm doing now. Until I went to cancel and they told me that I could use the phone that way ( for emergencies to 911 with no monthly fee, or any fee at all ) I wasn't aware of that fact. Now that I know that, I'll keep it in the car to report accidents and call for help if something bad happens to me or family. I guess that's what the 911 taxes are good for...

[Craig Tucker]

They would dump it now if it wasn't for those 2 year service agreements they signed!

2 Year contracts are unheard of over here. Contracts are 12 months and you can upgrade to a new phone after 9 months. Most phones are free when you sign up for a contract (£15-£25/month) unless you are after a top of the range phone and these are very heavily subsidised. I just upgraded to a Sony Ericsson P900 after having a P800 for 9 months. The upgrade fee was £260 but because I was taking out a new 12 month contract I get the first 3 months free saving £75. After these free 3 months you can then reduce your tarrif to whatver one you wish. I sold my P800 for £200, so I end up with a brand new better phone and am actually better of financially, it would be silly for me not to upgrade.

[gmatov]

I do believe that, over here, TDMA, CDMA, SMS, GSM are all able to be carried over the same towers. Different providers pay a tariff for any calls over their carrier waves.

My problem is Nextel, and their T9 or whatever they call it. I don't think it can be carried on the other systems, so if there is no Nextel tower within 5 miles, you are SOL.

The towers are supposed to have a signal radius of 5 miles, so it is not too hard to get into a dead spot. And, like he said, it IS a big country, and we are well spread out, more suburban than urban.

And, too, we have a lot of NIMBY here, many cities, suburban communities require carriers to disguise their towers to look pretty. How you disguise a couple hundred foot tower, I don't know, never seen one that looked like a tower in disguise, so I guess they're pretty good at it.

Cheers,

George

[pacmania_2001]

And, too, we have a lot of NIMBY here, many cities, suburban communities require carriers to disguise their towers to look pretty. How you disguise a couple hundred foot tower, I don't know, never seen one that looked like a tower in disguise, so I guess they're pretty good at it.

In Australia they disguise them sometimes a palm tree or as a flag pole. Also they've lately hidden them in billboards so that you can't tell it's a mobile tower.

The money you get from the carriers is also very good for having a tower and/or the accompanying communications box on your land. It's $35,000 per year for just having the box and $50,000 for having a mobile tower and generally the telephone company will offer a 10 year contract.

[Capmaster]

It's $35,000 per year for just having the box and $50,000 for having a mobile tower and generally the telephone company will offer a 10 year contract.

I wonder if they have that here. They could sign me up today. Get a couple of those towers on my property and I could retire in style Of course, being that close I wonder if I'd be in the yard mowing the lawn and feel the back of my neck heating up from the microwave energy

[flaninacupboard]

well if you own your own home, get the towers installed, rent the house out to someone else and go live somewhere else!

Over here they hide them inside the giant displays outside petrol stations that have the prices on. funny that, you're not supposed to use mobile communications equipment in petrol stations......

[Capmaster]

well if you own your own home, get the towers installed, rent the house out to someone else and go live somewhere else!

I like your way of thinking

Over here they hide them inside the giant displays outside petrol stations that have the prices on. funny that, you're not supposed to use mobile communications equipment in petrol stations......

Another case of having another standard when there's money to be made. :P

[Faustus]

Well I got my LG flipphone for like $50 with activation. Has a nice color screen and cool ringer functions. I loaded some software onto via a website so that I can play blackjack and stuff when I have nothing better to do. Its served me very well since I had it.

On the same note sometime in the next month or so I'm upgrading to a Nokia 3660, mainly because its got alot of "neato" appeal to me. I expect to get plenty of use out of it also.