Text 9086, 68 rader
Skriven 2010-07-09 05:25:38 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 9003 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Cellphone woes
======================
Replying to a message of Michiel van der Vlist to Robert Bashe:

 MvdV> Hello Robert,

 MvdV> On Thursday July 08 2010 21:22, you wrote to me:

 MV>>> If one had to start from scratch that would probably be true. But of
 MV>>> course one does not start from scratch. Every country already HAD a
 MV>>> telephone system based on land lines before they started large
 MV>>> scale cell phone systems.

 RB>> True, but they were originally copper lines for analog phone lines.
 RB>> Whether they are also suitable for modern digital communication is
 RB>> another question.

 MvdV> Can you spell "ADSL"?

Not available out here in the boonies.  I keep getting advertising flyers from
Qwest (the landline phone company) for it, but when I called to sign up they
said it's not offered in this area (so why are they sending me the flyers?)..

 MvdV> Amd who says you need "modern digital"?

 RB>> And don't forget that there are a lot of places in the States without
 RB>> phone lines

Maybe if you get w-a-y out.  Maybe in parts of Montana and North Dakota that's
true.

There are areas in the US where cell service isn't available, too - oddly
enough,
Louisville NE was such a place, and it's withing spitting distance of Omaha.
Five or six miles out of town in any direction and there was a cellular signal,
but
in town was (and may still be) a dead spot.

Years ago it was a toll call from Plattsmouth, NE, where I lived, to anyplace
north of
the Platte River (Omaha, Offutt AFB, etc.)  A lot of folks that lived in the
hills on the
north end of the town bought cell phones, because the nearest cell tower was
across
the river and they could make calls to the Omaha area without being stuck for
the long
distance charges.  So the local phone company put up a big cell tower in town,
specifically
to stop that practice.  Then the state PUC made the phone companies expand the
Omaha
local area to include Plattsmouth.

 MvdV> Totally without phone lines? Sorry, I have problems accepting that.

 RB>>  - rural America is a good deal more "rural" than rural Europe.

 MvdV> That, I can accept, but I have great difficulty accepting that
 MvdV> before the cell phone era there were indeed "lots of places" not
 MvdV> covered by the telephone system.

 MvdV> Well, I suppose it depends on the definition of "covered"...


 MvdV> Cheers, Michiel

 MvdV> -!- GoldED+/W32-MINGW 1.1.5-b20070503
 MvdV>  ! Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)

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