The fall of the phone

LizzieMaine said:

This afternoon at the theatre I've already had two tourist couples drift in asking if we have a pay phone (I wish we did, but my suggestion got overruled.) Obviously we hard-boiled anti-cell types on the Lounge aren't the only ones who don't buy into the cellphone hype.

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If they were foreign tourists, they might enjoy cell phones, but not enjoy international roaming. I went to England with my cellphone and managed to rack up a $2077.79 bill in the course of three weeks. Worked out good, in that I did the numbers myself, and thought I racked up 5,000, so I cut down on the internet browsing for the last week so that I'd still have savings when I got home, and the real bill was a pleasant surprise. It's probably financially safer to just leave the cell at home, but you never know when someone will want to see how things are going.

If I had to write a $2100 phone bill check I would puke.:eusa_doh:

I got my first mobile phone about 7 years ago. My now-husband insisted, because he was always too disorganised to stick to a prior arrangement and needed to be able to change things on the hop. I mostly use mine for texting, because I seldom have anything important enough to say to need an immediate response, but something will tickle me and I'll want to share it before I forget. And a couple of nights a week I travel home quite late, and it makes my husband feel happier if he knows that I can get help if one of the nutters on the train tries something.

Matt Deckard said:

Morbid Curiosity

The fall of the phone

Our spirits travel in our words; from the crackle of the text in a Tom Wolfe book to the cadence of Churchill trumpeting over radios, we have a dexterity of the mind that can be delivered clumsily or anti clumsily to anyone with similar skills anywhere. Instantly through a handset you could call from point to point with little to no interference save the sometimes-ordered “please deposit another 25 cents for the next ten minutes please”

Those were the days. No electro-static halo around you that conveyed your every move to a tower signaling back to a hub that pinpointed your location at all times. There was no way to get a hold of you unless you checked in, and if you checked in it meant you controlled your flow of information without the burden of thinking you were shutting off others intentions to contact you with them knowing it. Just another freedom, some may consider psychologically a choice though a group imperative to many in order to work properly with the functional society that wants to move on.

I walked about four blocks today and noticed the city took out all the pay phones around the blocks… just got me thinking, that’s all.

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Matt, I agree with you, although I am glad for many of our technological advances, I find myself annoyed when my cell rings and if I choose not to answer it, my wife is all "Oh what if it is one of the kids? Egad.
My cell has a lifetime tally of 78.5 hours in the 4 years I have had it. That's 1.64 hours/month of use.
I have an old Automatic Electric AE40 and I am so pleased to have found at this forum the existence of a bluetooth device that allows one to use his or her cell phone to power a vintage telephone. Thanks Bustercat!

One thing I find sad is that the art of letter writing has become a lost or dying art. I myself am guilty as heck and I constantly resolve to use my dip pen and stationery more.
I have been known to say to my wife on more than one occasion; " wonder what it would have been like to have lived in a slowed paced time?"

One nice thing about this forum is that one can get many ideas on how to slow down just a little one's own life if just a little. 1920's internet radio is just one of the many ideas that give me a little more peace in my personal time.

Sorry for the dreadful long ramble but I was compelled to chat.

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans and to all the rest...have a groovy day.

Dan

I do rely on my cell phone quite a bit.. but mostly for e-mail access on the go and also for texting.

I do love the texting feature... it's like the 21st century version of the telegraph. It's so easy to send a simple text instead of bothering some one with a phone call.. when it's for something simple.

If I'm calling someone to "gab" for a while and catch up.. I do prefer my home phone (rotary and all). The calls are so much CLEARER... even with the best cell phone, calls can be choppy.

While I do keep the cell handy.. I have no intention of letting me home telephone go.

Retro Russ said:

Ah, that's unfortunate. The phone company I use is a digital phone network. I guess I could use a pocket tone-dialer, but then I wouldn't actually be able to rotate the dial, which was what I was hoping for. Thank you for the information. It has been helpful.

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They do sell pulse-tone converters that your plug your rotary phones into.. so when you dial, the box changes the clicks into a tone... will even create a the # and * sound from the old dial.

If you use VoIP.. you may have to find the right brand.. but these devices will ensure using rotary phones well into the future.

LizzieMaine said:

Whenever I want to feel really, really old, I think about the fact that there are now millions of functional adults in the world who have never dialed a telephone.

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Or only had to dial a 5 number string instead of 7.
He he he
Dan

Pompidou said:

If they were foreign tourists, they might enjoy cell phones, but not enjoy international roaming. I went to England with my cellphone and managed to rack up a $2077.79 bill in the course of three weeks.

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That's where you're wrong. After having a BTCellNet phone I really, really hate US cell phone companies. When I was stationed in England I could bring my cell phone stateside and was able to use it most of the time. It cost me 3 pence a minute to use it. Heck, I would have kept it after I transferred back to the states if I hadn't decided most people wouldn't want to call England to reach me!

All over the UK and all the way down into Switzerland I never had a problem. Heck, I was even using it in the Swiss Alps!

Before I retired I was assigned to a part of HQ US Central Air Forces. My office had a couple of BT Cell Net phones to use when we travelled overseas because we couldn't what we needed from US companies.

Cheers,
Tom

Tango Yankee said:

That's where you're wrong. After having a BTCellNet phone I really, really hate US cell phone companies. When I was stationed in England I could bring my cell phone stateside and was able to use it most of the time. It cost me 3 pence a minute to use it. Heck, I would have kept it after I transferred back to the states if I hadn't decided most people wouldn't want to call England to reach me!

All over the UK and all the way down into Switzerland I never had a problem. Heck, I was even using it in the Swiss Alps!

Before I retired I was assigned to a part of HQ US Central Air Forces. My office had a couple of BT Cell Net phones to use when we travelled overseas because we couldn't what we needed from US companies.

Cheers,
Tom

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You must have been on an excellent plan! There is new legislation I believe to cap the roaming charges, because some of the phone companies were charging extortionate rates.

Puzzicato said:

You must have been on an excellent plan! There is new legislation I believe to cap the roaming charges, because some of the phone companies were charging extortionate rates.

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Within the EU. If your phone is from an EU provider and you are using it within an EU country the rates will be capped. If you use a USA cell phone in Europe you're still subject to the same rip-offs as always.

I'm missing having a landline so much. I have 2 cars for sale and am getting calls constantly on my cell and, of course, can only understand about half of what is being said. Of my 60-some rotary phones, my favorite which I racked the most miles on was my Avocado Green Western Electric 500 with the hearing-impaired volume control. If I cranked that thing, you could hear it across the room!