Phoney Issues
Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:01 pm
Random phone thoughts:
Got rid of my land line several years back. The cheapest plan I could get was about $40 per month; I joked that if Qwest would put a pay phone in my house I would be happy to pay a dollar per call since I'd come out about $35 ahead. By then, I was making few if any land line calls, and the only calls coming in were telemarketers. Seems like most people I know have dropped their land lines by now.
I moved the land line number to a second cell phone (and paid the $10 per month for another line on the cell plan), but like I said, the only people who called me on that number were telemarketers so I eventually dropped that line.
Q: "Is that phone number your home, business or cell phone?" A: "Yes".
People can and do keep their phone number with them, as they move, go to college, etc. "Long distance" billing does not exist on cell plans. As a result, you have people who live in one city but have a phone number related to another area (e.g., live in Portland but have a Seattle or San Francisco phone number). Will today's kids keep their numbers their whole lives rather than change numbers as they move, and in this way, always be identifiable as the person from "503" or "415" or "206" area code (kind of like Social Security numbers link you to your place of birth)?
Glad to have a land line at the office so that I can actually have a reliable line with a phone that is comfortable to hold. Interesting how easy it was to give up such key functionality when it comes to personal communication.
Got rid of my land line several years back. The cheapest plan I could get was about $40 per month; I joked that if Qwest would put a pay phone in my house I would be happy to pay a dollar per call since I'd come out about $35 ahead. By then, I was making few if any land line calls, and the only calls coming in were telemarketers. Seems like most people I know have dropped their land lines by now.
I moved the land line number to a second cell phone (and paid the $10 per month for another line on the cell plan), but like I said, the only people who called me on that number were telemarketers so I eventually dropped that line.
Q: "Is that phone number your home, business or cell phone?" A: "Yes".
People can and do keep their phone number with them, as they move, go to college, etc. "Long distance" billing does not exist on cell plans. As a result, you have people who live in one city but have a phone number related to another area (e.g., live in Portland but have a Seattle or San Francisco phone number). Will today's kids keep their numbers their whole lives rather than change numbers as they move, and in this way, always be identifiable as the person from "503" or "415" or "206" area code (kind of like Social Security numbers link you to your place of birth)?
Glad to have a land line at the office so that I can actually have a reliable line with a phone that is comfortable to hold. Interesting how easy it was to give up such key functionality when it comes to personal communication.
I'd forgottten what it was like before there was call waiting.