Ralph.Hyre@ius3.ius.cs.cmu.edu (07/26/89)
I'm thinking of jumping into the cellular phone fray: A local electronics and appliance is offering the GE XR-3000 (or XR-3001, the label on the phone and the sign disagree) 'luggable' phone for $49.99, as long as you sign up for a year of cellular service. How would one obtain the service manual available for this device? (I want to use my AT&T (aka Plantronics SP-2) headset so I can use it hands-free while driving ... [via the DB-9 connector which is used to attach the handset/keypad to the base unit.] The service costs $14.95 month and .60peak/.15off-peak for up to 25 minutes of airtime/month. [I don't expect to use it much more than that, but if I did, I'd be bumped up to the $30.00/month level with comparable airtime charges.] Cellular One is introducing a feature (called AirShare) which means there are no airtime charges for incoming calls. The retailer said that if they service provider were to eventually impose a monthly fee for this service, that the phone would have to be brought in and re-programmed at that time. (What is the reason for this? Do they change the ESN of the phone?) In summary, does this sounds like a reasonable deal? $200/year + airtime, and the phone is basically free. I currently have two land-based phone lines, so I could drop one (saving $9.00/month) and use the cellular phone for other calls. [does any carrier offer 'hunting' or busy/NA forwaring between regular and cellular phones?] Finally, has anyone modified any cellular phone to go out of band or otherwise change it's behavior? (I'd need to be able to transmit whether a cell had picked me up or not.) I'd love to have a 902-928 Mhz. amateur transceiver that I only paid $49 for. (The repeater/trunked base system would cost a good bit, I guess, but the Japanese CB service is a trunked system.) I would obey all FCC regulations (ie never revert to cellular operation or other than amateur band operation since I assume that any modifications would presumably remove the radios type acceptance for the cellular band. [radios for the amateur bands need not be FCC type accepted.]
davef@lakesys.lakesys.com (Dave Fenske) (07/26/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0256m01@vector.dallas.tx.us> Ralph.Hyre@ius3.ius.cs. cmu.edu writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 256, message 1 of 5 >I'm thinking of jumping into the cellular phone fray: >The service costs $14.95 month and .60peak/.15off-peak for up to 25 minutes >of airtime/month. [I don't expect to use it much more than that, but if I >did, I'd be bumped up to the $30.00/month level with comparable airtime >charges.] There was a question as to cellular phone service features. Let me start by saying in Milwaukee, Cellular One charges $10.00 per month and 40 cents per minute prime / 27 cents non-prime. Obviously, you'd be better off driving up here to make your calls. Call forwarding is offered. No answer transfer (forward call if no answer) is also available. Conference calling is also available. As far as I know, the only "ESS" feature that is not offered is speed dialing. Cellular phones are wonderful. There have been times that I couldn't have surrvied without mine. They are, however, expensive to operate.