mearle@pro-party.cts.com (Mark Earle) (11/03/90)
I recently signed on with Southwestern Bell. They do it thusly: Immediate call forwarding-no air time fee (except for the one call to set up the forward, or to turn it off upon return to vehicle). For the "on" and "off" call, regular charges apply, depending on your rate plan. Conditional (busy/no answer) forward: no air time charge, same as above about "on" or "off" Three way calling: you pay 2x the normal airtime (you pay normal airtime for BOTH calls you've conferenced. Call Waiting: Answer the second call, and as above with three way, you pay 2x the normal airtime, while you've got one or the other call on "hold". Roaming: within a large number of SBMS cities, no daily charge, no extra Follow me roam charge. For instance, on my plan, peak minutes are 38 cents, off peak zero (yes, zero) Off peak is 8 p.m. local to 7 a.m. local, plus all weekend and some holidays. Anyhow, once I roam, I pay .38/min both peak and off peak while a roamer, but no daily fees. Standard FMR problem with it cutting off each night. I have not played with this feature much. If you don't FMR, but someone knows where you might be, they can call (on their nickle) a number in that city, and at the "beep" enter your 10 digit cellphone number to ring you. This same number will work if a local in your "roam" city wants to ring you. In this case, me as the cell phone user pay only for the airtime on the incoming calls. Anyhow-the Uniden GTS-4000 phone seems solid, sounds good, etc. I get "local" (non-roam) service up to 90 miles NORTH of Corpus Christi, and by then am in the San Antonio coverage area. Similiar coverage South. That's LOTs of square miles! It seems I can be in range of SBMS from Dallas to Corpus, and over towards Houston. Quite a system, so far. Rates, in general: $40/month -- Call Forwarding/Waiting, three-way, .38/prime, zero off peak $25/month -- Call Forwarding/Waiting, three-way, .38/prime, .21 off peak $15/month -- .38/prime and off peak $125 (or is it $150?) -- Call Forwarding/Waiting, three-way, .21 prime and off peak, but you get (hmmm ...300?) minutes "free" per month.. I am recalling the last from memory; I picked the $40/month plan, since a *lot* of my useage time is off peak. Anyhow ... it is amazing, for a "uniform" product (cellular access) the variations between wireline and non, and market to market; judging by what others have posted. BTW: It seems this phone is programmed by a magic handset. It looks like a normal handset. Anyone know the details; if it's a jumper cut/add, etc? Since this phone has one NAM (OK, I'm cheap!) might be nice to get a "local" account if it could be keyboard-programmed. I also wonder if there is a "test" function for signal strength display (apparently it's not a normal user feature, if it exists at all). Thanks! mearle@pro-party.cts.com (Mark Earle) [WA2MCT/5] CIS 73117,351 MCI Mail to: MEARLE My BBS: (512)-855-7564 Opus 1:160/50.0 Blucher Institute, Corpus Christi State University [Moderator's Note: You did not mention what city your service is based out of; I am guessing it is Corpus Christi. Chances are there is a local programming mode for the unit which is accessed by entering some unusual (from the view of someone dialing an actual call) combination of numbers on the keypad beginning with the # or * keys. I'm sure Uniden would sell you a service manual with the details. PAT]