Mahoney's verizon phone has been disconnected

[Tom]

T-mobile uses the EDGE system. It's not especially fast, but faster than their prior GPRS service. It's never going to be as fast as Sprint, AT&T or Verizon using the existing technology but, if/when they switch technologies, they have plans to be among the fastest.

I've used T-mobile for a number of years, and have had excellent coverage across the US, the Maritimes, down the CA coast (by cruise ship) to Mexico, and in the UK. I'd prefer a slow connection to no connection at all, and I'm grandfathered in with a low cost data plan. The one time I couldn't get a signal was in the kitchen of my son's house in Wales. After a couple of days, I remembered that the walls of his house are 28" thick and made of stone. I took the notebook out into the garden, and voilla!

Last year I purchased a 3G card and plan with Verizon. Really fast (well, slow compared with the 16 gig cable at home, but it's all relative). We haven't yet used it outside of CA and Arizona, but I expect good coverage in many places we're likely to be.

 

[Tom and Margi]

Margi, you are a gal after my own heart. I had to argue with the guy at the Verizon store to get a phone that you just use as a, well, as a PHONE, to make and receive calls. But that's what I've got !!

Wendy

At last ... a kindred spirit!   

When our phone recently quit working (operator error as it turns out), the VERY young guy in the kiosk fixed my problem.  I said, almost apologetically, that I really didn't need a high tech phone, just a plain ol', plain ol', that would dial and ring.  Young wet-behind-the-ears-guy said, "Well, you got pretty close with this one!"  (Smart Alec.  ;D )

Margi

 

[Alaskansnowbirds]

Margi, you are a gal after my own heart. I had to argue with the guy at the Verizon store to get a phone that you just use as a, well, as a PHONE, to make and receive calls. But that's what I've got !!

Wendy

Well, there are at least three of you because that is what Peg wanted and has.

 

[Tom and Margi]

Well, there are at least three of you because that is what Peg wanted and has.

No surprise to me.    I always knew Peg was a lady of impeccable taste and judgement.   

Margi

 

[ArdraF]

Make that four!  Last year my nephew got a call on his fancy phone and then his mom wanted to talk with me.  I looked at his phone and said "Where do I talk into it?"  He pointed to the correct place and I started talking.  Then he came over and turned it around 180 degrees.  I was talking into the wrong end!  Never did see the In-Out stuff.  Just give me a plain ole, plain ole.

ArdraF

 

[Tom and Margi]

Now I don't feel so bad, Ardra.  You're one of the smartest people I know!   

I've been tempted to try one of those cell phones with the huge numbers you see advertised in "Parade" magazine, but that would be too much like admiting defeat.  :

Margi

 

[Ned]

It used to be easy, you talked into the end where the cord was attached.  Unless the cord was attached to a wooden box on the wall in which case you listened to that part on the end of the cord and spoke into the box

 

[Wendy]

And you turned the crank and a very nice lady connected you with the party you wanted to be connected with so you didn't even have to punch in the numbers. Kind of like the radio phones we had in Death Valley in the 80s.....we were "Grapevine 1"....you had to ask for the oldest operator available to get someone who knew how to get us through to those phones.

Wendy
Bolsa Chica SB

 

[Tom and Margi]

Our number for that old crank phone was 914-F-13 which meant one long and three shorts from the whistle at the Shell Oil pump station to tell us we had a call.

And when I called home from Berkeley on a new fancy wall phone and gave our home number to the "number please" operator, she told me my folks weren't home and were over at my grandparents house having dinner.   She said, "I'll put you through."  She did; and they were.

Are we old now? 

Margi

 

[Wendy]

Are we old now? 

I'm Not !!!

 

[Ron]

Nah we are not old just more experienced.  While we did not have a crank phone we did have one of the goose neck phones.  I remember our old phone number a 146-M.  There was a lot of advantanges that went away with the number please operators.

 

[Helaine & Wally]

Tom and Margi,
Is it too late to deny that I know you??? Didn't know you were THAT old.
I too am old but I only remember party lines and funny shaped back phones tethered to a wall. My grampa had one of those old crank phones but I was only 3 or so when I saw it last.

Our phones have lots of bells and whistles but we do not know how to ring or blow them.

Helaine

 

[Tom and Margi]

Tom and Margi,
Is it too late to deny that I know you???

Way, waaaaay too late.  ;D  I may not be old, yet, but I DO remember talking with my brother via two tin cans and a string.  8)

Margi

 

[ArdraF]

Margi, thanks for the nice compliment, but I'm not smart enough to figure out some of these gadgets that the little kids can work with no effort!  :

I, too, remember my Grandma's hand crank wall phone.  When I was a kid, Mother always warned me to be careful what I said because we all knew there were at least three other families listening in to our calls.  ;D Maybe that's why she was such a private person in her later years....

ArdraF

 

[Marsha/CA]

Well now, I'm like the rest of the ladies on here and very reluctantly gave up my tri-mode phone that I could use anywhere (when everyone else's phones could not connect), could easily see the numbers to dial and even read the screen without my glasses.  When my Palm Pilot died, darling husband, who is a true "toy boy", I might add, talked me into a Blackjack phone.  No, I said, I really want just a plain ole phone.  Then he convinced me that with the Blackjack I could have 2 pieces of equipment for one; a phone and an address book.  The cheap "skin-flint" in me agreed to the Blackjack.  So here I am.

FWIW Ardra, I have on several occasions talked into the wrong end of the phone, or pressed "end" instead of "start" to begin a conversation; and have paid at least $10 bucks extra over th last year or two because I accidentally connected myself to the internet.  :-\

Margi, The tin can on a string is much easier to figure out and the operator on our party line was always nice to me.

Marsha~

 

[Wendy]

Marsha, You'll be sorry you don't have that tri-mode phone if you ever spend time in Death Valley. It's still analog there and only tri-mode phones will get out. I sat there last year laughing at people (including Mike) with their fancy-schmancy blackberry-type phones who couldn't make a simple phone call. My crummy old 'just a phone' cell phone worked just fine.

BTW, my techo-junkie husband tells me that my phone will take pictures and play games.....who cares, I don't wanna

Wendy

 

[Tom and Margi]

I can just hear Russ laughing at the fun we're having with his message about changing his phone number.  Isn't his laugh one of the best you've ever heard?  ;D  Right up there with my ultimate favorite laugh to hear -- Betty Brewer's! 

Margi

 

[Jeff]

It's ironic that Russ (Owner of the first I-phone) is causing all this discussion of simple cell phones.

 

[Ned]

I recall Russ switching to Verizon Wireless because when AT&T put up the cell tower at Happy Trails, it was GSM only and didn't help his TDMA cell phone.

 

[rhmahoney]

Yep, back then, the nearest analog ATT tower only reached to 3 blocks from Happy Trails. VZN worked at my site with a weak signal. I enjoyed VZN coverage in the west and the free time for connecting to other vzn RVers. BUT the ease of use and vast feature set of the iPhone will keep me for a long time.

Couldn't resist chiding the vzn clerk about their turning down iPhzone offer and he just sighed.