Re: Letters with **three** cases?

In article <1120551437.617437.26290@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> "=?iso-8859-1?B?U2XhbiBPJ0xlYXRobPNiaGFpcg==?=" <jwlawler@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> > *** T. Winter wrote:
....
> > > But (at least) in Europe cell phones are much more popular than in the =
> > > US. In the Netherlands it has gotten to the point that many people
> > > give up their fixed phone line in favour of a cell phone. The reason
> > > for the
> >
> > Why do you suppose that is not the case in the US? During our latest
> > blackout (August 2003 I think it was), millions of people without a real
> > phone discovered that they couldn't call anyone -- the cellphone
> > industry relies on the power grid in a way that the telephone system
> > doesn't.
>
> I saw a long discussion on this in another group a while ago. How
> phone systems, both fixed and mobile, are powered seems to vary from
> place to place. Several Americans made comments like yours that when
> they lost power they also lost their mobile phone networks. But
> others, including myself, have seen the converse.

It varies quite a bit. Most (land-line) phones sold currently in the
Netherlands require a mains connection. Two of the phones in my home
do not, they pick the power required from the phone line (and they
require power only for ringing and during a call). And so during the
last black-out we encountered (some years ago) those were the only two
phones in the neighbourhood that still did work, including all cell-
phones that did also not work anymore.

> > > difference is (I think) the tariff structure. In the US the receiver of
> > > a call by cell phone has to pay a part. That is not the case in Europe,
> >
> > ?? Where did you hear that??
>
> It is fairly well known and discussed at great length in other groups.

comp.dcom.telecom.

> Outside the US, it is common that you do not pay to receive a call on
> your mobile phone (unless you are roaming). But the cost of this is
> that it usually costs the caller more to call the mobile phone. Pop
> into a mobile phone related newsgroup and I am sure that many people
> will explain this to you at great length.

Yes, my phone bill is always interesting. 8 hours of calls to land-lines
anywhere in the Netherlands costs about as much as 1 hour of calls to
cell phones.

> > In some areas, new area codes were introduced just for cellphones (917
> > and 646 are some of them in the NYC area), but cellphones were also
> > assigned to existing area codes.

It has been a long time a FCC (I think) regulation that cell phones
should be assigned numbers in the same area codes as land-line phones.
As of 1 September 2004 only 917 was cellphone only. Earlier area
codes that were cellphone only (281 and 630) where changed to all
kind of phones in 1996.

> In many countries other than the US, mobile area codes are always
> different. For example in the UK, land lines have codes starting 1 or
> 2 but mobiles start 7. In the Philippines mobiles always start 9 but
> landlines never do.

In the Netherlands area-codes starting with 06 mean a cellphone or
similar. 08 means freephone or special services. 09 means premium
services. Normal area codes start with 01 to 05 or 07.
--
*** t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, +31205924131
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; http://www.cwi.nl/~***/
.

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