Very interesting.
Posted on 07/31/2006 10:06:04 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Are other cellular phone companies planning on switching to GSM? It sure would make it a lot easier to travel with only one cell phone.
The fees that telcos charge for 'extras' have nothing to do with costs.
For example Caller ID data is transmitted with pretty much every call and the telcos developed special software to block it from being transmitted to those that do not pay extra.
Most modern cell nets are GSM or some variant thereof (different frequencies).
There are already "world phones" that work in any GSM network.
TDMA was a pretty awful network to begin with, it needs to go away.
Will someone correct me if I'm wrong, but analog phone calls are not as susceptible to monitoring by the NSA as are digital ones.
GSM "IS" a form of TDMA
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/G/GSM.html
Our local phone company has never done that in it's 50+ year existence. The only services they charge extra for are services like caller ID and voice mail on landline phones, and they're free on their cellular phone service.
Cingular sold their old system to Metro PCS... local and long distance for a $40 flat fee.
Actually if you have an analog phone, people can trivially listen in on your calls with a scanner. Including the NSA, or your neighbors ;-)
Verizon and SWB do charge extra for touch tone. Not sure about the others.
Too bad. The older analog cell phones sounded real good. The newer technology(digital) sounds like garbled poop. I dont know how people that depend on phone communication actually put up with the drop outs and poor quality.
GSM is just a form of TDMA.
Area codes were initially assigned on the basis of population because of "tying" up the network dialing with rotary.
So, the larger the population, the smaller the sum of the digits. Areas with large cities NYC 212, Chicago 312,
LA 213, etc. If you look at the area codes, say pre-1990, it provides an interesting look at population centers.
BTW, why have area code splits been so annoyingly handled?
Once the N1X (second digit 0-1) area codes were replaced with NXX (allowing second digit to be 2-9), why were overflowing area codes still handled by splitting off some people while leaving the rest? Why not split off everybody but allow the old area code to be used when dialing old numbers? Until the dialing space was completely full there'd be no need to reclaim the old area codes; by then, most people would be using the new ones.
Whaaaa? $4.99 extra a month!! I won't pay it!!
I had one of those. I called it my "GI Joe" phone.
Analog calls are far *more* susceptible to monitoring. They're nothing but a radio signal in the high 800 MHz frequency range, and can be easily picked up by a normal everyday scanner. That is one big reason why Congress passed a law in the early 1990s requiring companies to block those frequencies in every scanner and radio receiving device sold in the US. (Many of them--including some that I owned--could be easily modified internally to get around the block, however.)
Remember the whole kerfuffle years ago when some Republican bigwigs' cellphone conversation got monitored, taped, and sent to Baghdad Jim McDermott? That was simply one 'Rat guy with a scanner who happened to stumble across the analog cellphone call, decided it sounded interesting, and recorded it.
}:-)4
When the landline went out here a few months ago, I had to lug that thing everywhere with me ( how else could BellSouth get in touch? ) and besides weighing a ton at day's end, I got all sorts of rude questions...
"That one O' them new 'man purses?'"
No, it's a cell phone...
That thang's a cell phone?"
Much like the eye rolls my teenage nieces give their grandmother's rotary-dial telephone...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.