[conspire] AT&T and CPUC

[Akkana Peck]

Rick Moen writes:
> Quoting Steve Litt (slitt at troubleshooters.com):
> 
> > As far as I know, in the US, your cell phone and your carrier are a
> > package deal, with absolutely no interoperability between mismatched
> > carrier/phone combinations. Those carriers aren't anxious to service
> > second hand phones.
> 
> Point of possible interest:  I didn't bother getting a cellphone of my
> own until circa 2001, and then got the then shiny-new Motorola RAZRv3
[ ... ]
> And, my point:  Being a GSM phone, it worked just fine with _any_
> GSM-based mobile provider, all over the world.

My first cellphone was also a Motorola, though a lower-end model than a RAZR. It was on a pay-as-you-go T-mobile plan. When I got the chance to travel abroad, I found out that it was carrier locked (having previously not known about such things), but after spending an hour or two on the phone to T-mobile people I managed to get it unlocked so I could buy a SIM card in the destination country.

Since then I've always bought unlocked phones, which are easy to find on ebay either new or used. And some models, like Pixels, are always unlocked.

Ron / BCLUG writes:
> Plus, I figured anyone on this list at least has internet, at which point
> one can be a hundred miles from a tower and still use the phone.

I am very frequently in places where there's no internet except via cellphone, and fairly frequently in places where there's no cell service either.

> Steve Litt:
> > In every hurricane, our landline is our
> > guaranteed communication out.

Ron / BCLUG:
> Are your cables all buried?

Here in semi-rural New Mexico, our land line cable (we don't have a land line but it's how we get DSL) runs overland for about 340 feet from the far end of the lot up to the house. In places it has a few inches of dirt tossed over it, in other places it's just lying on the ground. I'm forever amazed that we don't lose internet all the time due to something like a deer tripping over the cable and breaking it, or a pack rat chewing through it.

The whole county lost internet, cell and cable services for a couple days about a year ago when a rodent chewed through the fiber bundle that provides our middle mile. Apparently land lines still worked for voice calls.

> It's worth it to also mention that the ability to take photos can provide
> enormous evidentiary value.
> 
> And GPS should be mentioned too.

Smartphones are definitely nifty devices. But you don't need a cell connection for things like photos or GPS. Even now, most of what I do on my phone doesn't require a cell signal.

Samsung used to make Android "players" that were a cellphone minus the cell. And they were vastly cheaper -- I could never figure out why they charged $250 for a player tablet but $600+ for an almost identical device with cell capability added.

        ...Akkana