Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Tue, 18 Aug 1992 14:59:34 CDT
From:         Bandwidth Pig <aharwell@PANAM1.PANAM.EDU>
Subject:      RE: Cellular Phones
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

OK, here goes. I only speak for my own setup; your mileage may vary.

The cellular network, not the phone, knows where I am. I tell it that
information by dialing *18 SEND, which sends a string of identifying
imformation to the nearest tower, saying BWP is in your cell now. In a half
hour or less, that information is propagated throughout the cellular network.
After that, any calls to my local number in Edinburg, Texas would ring my phone.

Every so often, a cellular tower broadcasts information about its own location
to all phones in the vicinity. If that location information matches what the
phone has in ROM about its "home," a green LED flashes slowly on the face of
the phone. If I leave my area, the phone gets alien location information and
begins to flash a yellow LED (which is behind a black mask labeled "Roam").
This is a signal to me that I am not in my home system and that I should grab
my knees because the phone company is getting ready to put it to me first time
I make a call.

BTW, the act of dialing *18 SEND charges a 1 minute call to me.

Once I have "Roamed" the phone, told it my new location, I can incur several
types of new and exciting charges. The first is the one I just mentioned above,
airtime in the Roam area, then I can be charged a daily Roamer fee, which
varies from free to 3 dollars per day, and plus as an added benefit of being s
loyal SW Bell customer, I get hit with a $2.00 "Roamer Administration" fee
which is assessed once a month for any month I roam at all, just in case I was
naughty and only roamed in cities like San Antonio that do not have a daily
roamer fee.

Although my local billing package allows me to use the ohone nights and
weekends withough airtime charges, in a roamed area, all bets are off. Charges
for airtime - using the phone at all, local or long distance - range from $.40
to $1.00 a minute (that's Boston I'm talking about there, Rita: expensive
little trip to the Zone...I should have let the pimps have me, it would've been
cheaper than that 10 minute call).

If I make a long distance call, I pay regular long distance charges as well.
They are the same rates as everyone pays, same selection of carriers (AT&T,
MCI, etc.) as everyone has. I chose AT&T and was rewarded by being told last
month that I could NOT get Reach Out America on my Cellular Long Distance.

If I am roamed to, say, Boston, and someone in Edinburg wants to call me, he
can reach me by dialing my local number. In that case I would pay the long
distance between Edinburg and Boston, plus local exorbitant airtime charges.

If I were in Boston, and Natalie in Starkville wanted to reach me, she could
call my Edinburg number and pay Starkville to Edinburg charges, and I would
still pay the charges in the previous paragraph.

Most towns have a local access number you can get by calling the phone company
which gives you dialin access to the locally roamed cellphones. For example, I
could have given Rita a local Boston number to dial, after which she could key
in my Edinburg cellular number, and she would save both of us long distance
charges. I would have still had to pay the local airtime though.

One other thing about roaming: the net thinks I am where I last told it I was
until I tell it a new location or until midnight, at which time it resets
itself and goes back to thinking I am in Edinburg. Then the next day I have to
tell it where I am again (if still roaming) so Bell gets to collect another
day's Roamer Fee off me.

As Monty Python said: "That's why I like it!"

Speaking of cellular things: I am looking for a fast battery charger that can
also draw down the NiCd cell and keep it from developing a memory. Anyone got
any suggestions for a cheap alternative to Motorola's $300.00 "smart charger?"

-abh