Cellphones in US -- how relevant is the Area Code?

[email protected] wrote in news:1173795942.875697.129110
@c51g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

> If going to the US to stay in one city for a few months, is it better
> to get a cell phone/SIM card with an area code local to that city? Or
> does it make no practical difference? Just I'm being offered a very
> cheap deal on a SIM card, but its area code is for a city 2000 miles
> away.
>
>

Landline telephone companies in the USA are still playing the "Long
Distance Game", charging their customers for calling out of the local
area, just like they have since an operator had to hook you to ATT Long
Lines to route the calls out of her manual phone system. Even with
government deregulation forcing them to allow other, cheaper LD companies
to route the call, they're still charging by the minute to call out of
town on landlines, even though it costs nothing because it's all data,
now.

Cellular companies, trying to keep customers who can now carry their
phone numbers with them to someone else, and there's lots of someone
elses to to go to, have stopped playing this scam. It costs me airtime
to call next door. It costs me airtime to call California, on the other
side of the country. I can even call Canada for just airtime. If I wait
until 9PM weeknights or anytime on the weekend, it's all free without the
airtime charges.

So, it really isn't important that you have a local number for most
American callers. It's just an inconvience for them to have to dial 10
digits to get you, instead of 7. If your number is local, the system
assumes the same area code as your number, so you only have to dial 555-
1212 to call 843-555-1212 if you live in the 843 area. They'll get over
it.

If you have a deal, take it. Calling outside one's local calling area is
either very cheap or no extra charge, here, across the USA/Canada, mainly
because of the intense competition that BT doesn't have in the UK.

Too bad you can't have multiple phone numbers on a cell like I have on
Skype (www.skype.com). I have two landline phone numbers on Skype....one
in Charleston, SC, USA and one in London for my UK friends. Skype is
REALLY cheap at $38/year for these numbers. Both numbers have automatic
call forwarding if I don't answer. If I'm not home, or not connected to
a free wifi hotspot with my Netgear SPH101 Skype pocket phone, either
number will forward to my cellular number, allowing my UK friends to call
my cellphone in America as a LOCAL call, not paying BT through the nose
to call America. You don't need to leave any computer on to make this
happen. Skype call forwards from its system, not yours. Both my local
Charleston number and my London number forward this way to my cellphone.
You might consider downloading Skype (free) and buying Skype In numbers
in both places, plus Skype Out to call out from Skype to landlines,
worldwide. Skype to most civilized places not ripped off by local
government phone companies is $US0.021/minute, .015 Euros I think. If
anyone calls you from their Skype to your Skype name, all on the
internet, that call gets forwarded to your cell, too, which is really
nice. You can have up to 10 Skype In phone numbers in the few countries
that have Skype In numbers so far, simultaneously. Unlike cellular, too,
you can run the same Skype account on multiple computers and they all
ring at once and whichever answers gets the call, something we've wanted
on cellular all along.

You can also use Skype FROM your cellphone, if you leave a computer
running someplace on the planet, even back home in the UK. Download "VOX
for Skype", free at the moment, from www.voxlib.com and install it on all
your Skype-enabled computers. When you boot VOX, and let it boot Skype
automatically, VOX becomes an automatic conference creation system for
Skype's conference mode. It also answers and forwards incoming calls to
you. When you call your own Skype In number, VOX answer the call, sees
from your caller ID that it's you not someone else calling, and reads you
a menu by a pretty English gal with a tiny bit of Cockney accent, which
should make you feel quite at home...(c; You press 2 to call telephone
numbers FROM that computer OUT on Skype Out at Skype Out rates from your
pre-charged account. You press 3 to have VOX read your contact list so
you can hear which of your friends has their Skype running, then press
the first 3 letters of their Skype name and VOX will put you in a
conference with them through your home computer as server so you can talk
to them from your cellphone to their computer on Skype. So, your
cellphone can be your Skype phone when you don't have wifi for your
laptop. Way cool...(c;

Larry
--

---

› See More: Cellphones in US -- how relevant is the Area Code?

"Steven J. Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> No, it doesn't cost "nothing." Doesn't cost a lot, but it doesn't cost
> zero either, unless the call stays on the same network. You call my
> old home phone number or my office number, both of which are Verizon,
> from your Alltel cell phone, or your Alltel or BellSOUTH landline (I
> assume it would be either Alltel or BellSOUTH), Verizon's charging
> your telco for call termination. You call my current home phone
> number, your telco will be charging my cable company for termination.
> Works exactly the same if I call you too, except your telco is charged.
>

Isn't it simply AMAZING, armed with all this knowledge, that Ebay's Skype
can connect me for a WHOLE YEAR to any landline in the USA and Canada,
for as long as I like, any time I like, daytime/nighttime/weekends
without limits....for $30/YEAR? I paid HALF that for 2007 on a special
for Skype Out that ran until Jan 31/2007.

Isn't it simply AMAZING, Ebay can let me use a rental phone number in
America and another one in England for $38/YEAR each?

This is not "per month" or "just weekends". This interconnect from Skype
to landlines and cellphones is PER YEAR!

You must be right, Steve, it must not cost a lot, at all, for those
numbers and interconnect minutes.

Now, if my Alltel phone is roaming on Verizon, for instance, Verizon is
charging Alltel X/min to route the call. But, alas, Verizon customers
roaming on Alltel are being charged to Verizon by Alltel, X/min in
return, right? So, if Verizon buys 400,000,000 minutes from Alltel...and
Alltel buys 400,000,000 minutes from Verizon....what is that bottom line
charge at the bottom of the last page of the bill? I have $70M in debits
and $70M in credits. Letting each other roam like this is SO convenient
to the CUSTOMERS, in market, in the holes....and SO cheap to the
carriers, if BOTH participate. If X is paying more than Y...he needs
MORE TOWERS...and conversely.



Larry
--
Roll up to the long checkout line....
Yell, "ICE RAID!"
It's your turn to load the grocery belt...(c;

"Steven J. Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> In article <[email protected]>, Larry wrote:
>
>> Landline telephone companies in the USA are still playing the "Long
>> Distance Game", charging their customers for calling out of the local
>> area, just like they have since an operator had to hook you to ATT Long
>> Lines to route the calls out of her manual phone system.
>
> You do realize that the phone companies charge other telcos for
> termination of calls on their networks, right? The cost is low, but
> not zero.
>
> AT&T is now offering unlimited calling to AT&T landline and Cingular
> Wireless customers. AT&T and Verizon both have unlimited flat-rate
> local and long distance calling packages for residential and business
> customers. (Verizon's is called Freedom - I looked into it before
> deciding to switch my dialtone to Charter Cable when we bought the new
> house.)
>



Qwest is now offering the same thing- unlimited LD for a set price. Hell,
after the "bundle discount", $10/month for unlimited LD.

Larry <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:


>>
>
> Isn't it simply AMAZING, armed with all this knowledge, that Ebay's
> Skype can connect me for a WHOLE YEAR to any landline in the USA and
> Canada, for as long as I like, any time I like,
> daytime/nighttime/weekends without limits....for $30/YEAR? I paid
> HALF that for 2007 on a special for Skype Out that ran until Jan
> 31/2007.


Enjoy it while it lasts- I'm betting that they'll be gone by the end of
'08. Wanna lose a ****load of money- start a consumer VOiP company.

>

At 14 Mar 2007 22:05:50 -0500 Scott wrote:

> Enjoy it while it lasts- I'm betting that they'll be gone by the end of
> '08. Wanna lose a ****load of money- start a consumer VOiP company.

While true, I suspect eBay is experimenting with Skype for the long haul.
Free in '06, and cheap in '07 might be getting people used to Skype and
willing to pay a more realistic (for Skype) price in the future.

On the other hand, they might be using a buffet restaurant model- the
"skinny" people subsidize the "fat" ones. For every guy like Larry who
uses Skype almost exclusively, there's one like me, who paid $15 for a
year "just in case" and hasn't used a single minute yet this year...

Scott <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Enjoy it while it lasts- I'm betting that they'll be gone by the end of
> '08. Wanna lose a ****load of money- start a consumer VOiP company.
>
>

Ebay's motives are much different. I don't think they care if it does
more than break even......as long as it connects BUYERS to SELLERS on
Ebay, which it does quite nicely.....even without the landline
interconnects.

I was so glad to see Ebay buy Skype, and have been rewarded that they are
not going to move it from Luxembourg into the American Taxation Zone for
further ripoffs.

As I type this, my contribution appears to be 4 connects from other Skype
users whos Skypes are using my bandwidth for command and update relay.
All 10,000,000 online Skype users are, involuntarily for most,
contributing to Skype's great connectivity and holding costs down.

I don't mind at all....If they didn't use it, SETI would be...(c;

Larry
--
Roll up to the long checkout line....
Yell, "ICE RAID!"
It's your turn to load the grocery belt...(c;

"Steven J. Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> I can't comment intelligently about that as I am not familiar with
> everything that Skype offers. Aside from the lack of 911, is there
> anything else a landline offers that Skype doesn't? (please educate
me!)
>
>

Nothing. Skype's telephone service is only a small part of its total
footprint, now. With Version 3 Skype, the software now provides a whole
new era of public conferences ANYONE on Skype can host for the planet to
join. Whole ethnic groups, in their own languages, can be joined on
Skypecasts that run for hours and days. AS I type this after midnight on
the East coast, There are Skypecasts going on for Wiccan witches in
English, always a fun group if you want to "sit a *****", one group each
in Urdu, Arabic, Farsi, English ("Americans having a good time", it says)
and a script language I have a font for, but cannot place, probably
Middle Eastern, but not Yiddish. Anyone can create a free Skypecast and
talk to people across the planet. Simply amazing.

Of course, Skype-to-Skype includes full motion color video, if you have
any webcam installed. I fixed a TV in Siberia in a Skype call to someone
I met by chance on Skype. He scanned the schematic and transferred it to
me on Skype's binary file transfer. While I poured over the schematic,
that looked like an old Zenith TV from the early 60's in nature, he was
doing the measuring and hands-on testing on the video/audio channel. One
of my other ham buddies had called me on my cell for something, and I had
him boot his Skype so I could put him in a conference with Sergei and I
as he was a Magnavox TV engineer in TN for years. We had a great time,
all 3 of us, all with full color video and full duplex audio, fixing that
Russian TV. Great fun across the planet no landline phone could provide.

Oh, we found a arcing capacitor in the flyback circuit that was pulling
down our horizontal output's HV to the CRT. He called me back in an
hour, having gone to his parts house for a replacement. The three of us
on Skype watched Russian TV from Siberia over his webcam....Boy was he a
happy camper!...(c; It set me a new troubleshooting-by-remote-control DX
record. Maybe I can fix one in New Zealand or Oz to stretch the miles
longer....??

Besides the color video and full duplex audio on Skype-to-Skype, it also
provides you with a full text chat mode that even stores text until you
logon for you like SMS does. In the chat window, you can also send any
kind of file, directly from your IP to his as fast as you have bandwidth
for. You are not required to call him on Skype to text/transfer to him
and you can easily limit who can connect to chat/file transfers to/from
you. It acts like a cute little FTP server the FTP jambots cannot
connect to to screw it, like on port 21 they scan, constantly. On crap
ISPs that forbid everything like Comcrap, because Skype can be assigned
to ANY port number, making it impossible, or at least inconvenient, to
scan from the ISPs snoops, you can leave it uploading or downloading,
privately, to your friends/associates without interference. Unless you
set Skype's status to "Skype Me", which is akin to telling the whole
world, "Hey! I'm here. I dare you to call me.", you get no troublesome
crapper calls, at all because Skype also provides a complete audit trail
directly to their IP/nameserver/skypename for disposition. No danger
like IRC's recent hacking.

Skype is capable of sending/receiving SMS message, direct to your
cellphone, and if you buy a Skype In phone number, you get great
voicemail for free that not only can landline callers use, but skype-to-
skype computer callers over the system can use. Skype IN supports many
modes of call forwarding, like any cellphone does, and I have no-answer-
transfer sending all Skype calls to my cell when I'm not home. Call
forwarding works without your computer, even from other Skype computers.
Very smart.

Unlike cellphones, you can run 10 Skypes simultaneously on the same
account name and all 10 will "ring" or text simultaneously. I run, at
home, Skype on my main computer and on my Netgear SPH101 Skype Phone to
the wifi router. I can answer either one when someone calls. Skype,
unlike cellular, doesn't care.

AS you can easily see, Skype has far more capabilities than a landline
home phone. Nope, being an international phone service, you can't call
911, but 1-area code-cop dispatcher's number works just as well, here.

It took me a while to figure out why I was calling Vietnam and getting
connected to interesting people. Charleston's area code is 843. I was
forgetting the 1 on the Netgear Skype Phone. So, dutifully, Skype dialed
+84-3-555-1234 instead of 1-843-555-1234. 84 is the country code for
Vietnam, which also has Skype....and landlines from Skype.... I met some
really nice people who spoke passable English from back when we Americans
had invaded their country. Most interesting random contacts, but Vietnam
ISN'T 2.1c/min so I didn't talk long....(c;



Larry
--
Roll up to the long checkout line....
Yell, "ICE RAID!"
It's your turn to load the grocery belt...(c;

[email protected] wrote in news:1173958403.633232.115460
@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

> Incidentally, I was told somewhere else that 51% of your calls out
> from some cellphones in the States have to be from your local calling
> area, or else there's a risk of having your account terminated. Though
> I imagine this wouldn't affect me too much for just a few months.

The average must be really long termed or they'd be dumping millions of
customers on a month-long vacation to Florida every winter. My aunt has
a Verizon cellphone from Syracuse, NY and spends every winter out of the
snow piles in Vero Beach, FL, with her same Verizon number for 5-6
months. They never threatened her with a disconnect. Her number stays
local to Syracuse where her kids like. She's 84 and STILL DRIVING!
Scary...(c;

>
> Thanks again Larry -- really helpful information in addition to
> answering my original question!
>
>
Quite welcome. Read the Skype.com webpages and it explains everything.
There's a full manual available in pdf format. I can't believe MOST
people wouldn't be better off on a VoIP like Skype because they don't
REALLY need full-mobile-in-motion cellular service.

There's gonna be a helluva battle coming when WiMax rolls out where your
wifi follows you....(c;


Larry
--
Roll up to the long checkout line....
Yell, "ICE RAID!"
It's your turn to load the grocery belt...(c;

Todd Allcock wrote:
> At 14 Mar 2007 22:05:50 -0500 Scott wrote:
>
>> Enjoy it while it lasts- I'm betting that they'll be gone by the end of
>> '08. Wanna lose a ****load of money- start a consumer VOiP company.
>
> While true, I suspect eBay is experimenting with Skype for the long haul.
> Free in '06, and cheap in '07 might be getting people used to Skype and
> willing to pay a more realistic (for Skype) price in the future.
>
> On the other hand, they might be using a buffet restaurant model- the
> "skinny" people subsidize the "fat" ones. For every guy like Larry who
> uses Skype almost exclusively, there's one like me, who paid $15 for a
> year "just in case" and hasn't used a single minute yet this year...

Voicestick is free, for "just in case" and you pay by the minute (or you
can pay by the year).

[email protected] wrote:

> I'm thinking either:
> Get a cheap USA SIM card, likely from T-Mobile with a number local to
> a random place in the States; buy two Skype numbers, one in the city
> where I'll be staying (Chicago), and one in London.

That's really over-doing it. Get a One-Suite account for calls to the UK
(2.2¢) so you won't use up your cell minutes. You could give out the UK
toll free access number to people in the UK to call you (9.9¢), then you
call them back.

> Incidentally, I was told somewhere else that 51% of your calls out
> from some cellphones in the States have to be from your local calling
> area, or else there's a risk of having your account terminated.

Doesn't matter on prepaid. Especially with T-Mobile prepaid where you're
not going to be roaming much because they limit roaming.

You're better off getting a Verizon CDMA phone and signing up with Page
Plus because you'll get better coverage, and it'll be cheaper than T-Mobile.

At 16 Mar 2007 07:20:32 -0700 SMS wrote:
> > For every guy like Larry who
> > uses Skype almost exclusively, there's one like me, who paid $15 for a
> > year "just in case" and hasn't used a single minute yet this year...
>
> Voicestick is free, for "just in case" and you pay by the minute (or
> you can pay by the year).

I have a Voicestick account as well- it's much cheaper than Skype for
occasional use and includes the incoming number for free (another
business model dooomed to failure, I suspect!)

However, Voicestick is a "real" SIP-compliant VoIP, which, while usually
an advantage in my book, presents a problem in one specific instance:
there isn't a stable, high-quality, SIP software solution I've found for
low-horsepower Pocket PCs (like my 200MHz T-Mo MDA), while the Skype PPC
software is now stable and pretty decent quality even at low CPU speed.

Having some sort of VoIP backup on my phone for when I'm out of T-Mo
coverage but still have Wi-Fi access (i.e. rural hotels off the beaten
track) has come in handy once or twice to call back home. Also, in
Cancun for a week last month, I could use Skype over the hotel's
overpriced Wi-Fi ($11 for 30 minutes!) cheaper than the $1.49/minute
roaming on my cell phone.

I intended to use Voicestick for my PPC VoIP solution ($5 vs. Skype's $15
and includes free incoming) but Voicestick has some SIP-compatibility
quirks that require tweaking some advanced settings on SIP software that
the PPC versions I've tried don't always let you adjust. (Ironically, I
can't get the PPC version of SJPhone to work reliably with Voicestick,
yet Voicestick uses the desktop version of SJPhone for their "Voicestick"
OEM softphone!) I have SJPhone on the PPC using Stanaphone- they
officially support the SJPhone PPC software, but the audio quality is
lower than the Skype client on my MDA (both worked quite well on my old
400MHz Dell Axim.)

Also, Skype (at least the mobile version) will work over port 80 if it
can't find another way out, so heavily-firewalled setups will often allow
Skype calls where other VoIP might not work (Voicestick needs 5060 and
8080 open.)

But Voicestick is certainly a fun toy- I like it more than Skype for call
quality, and I scored two of their MG-3 ATA adapters on eBay for $25
including shipping, so I can use VS without a PC and with "real"
telephones for international calling at home.

At 16 Mar 2007 08:45:58 -0700 SMS wrote:


> You're better off getting a Verizon CDMA phone and signing up with
> Page Plus because you'll get better coverage, and it'll be cheaper
> than T-Mobile.


Did GSM kick your dog when you were little Steve? ;-) I realize you
have a pro-CDMA bias for your rural hiking/backpacking, etc. adventures
in San Fransisco, but international traveling is what GSM does best!

I think the OP's attaction to T-Mo is cost and convenience. He
apparently can procure a cheap US T-Mo SIM prior to his visit, stick it
in the phone he already owns and has viable US service the moment he
lands here.

PagePlus has no storefront presence I've ever seen, so he needs to obtain
a Verizon-compatible CDMA handset after he gets here (not a tremendous
amount of those laying around the UK is there?), either from thrift-shop
hunting, or for $50 at a Wal-Mart, then buy an "activation" on-line or
over the phone with a credit card or Paypal. All to save a few pennies a
minute? T-Mo is 10-cents a minute with $50 or $100 recharge cards, and
he doesn't have to buy a phone- he's already lined up a started SIM for
$11 US, so I doubt PagePlus will save him a cent. So for roughly $60
he'll have a working phone with about 600 minutes.


Sure Verizon has better coverage nationwide than T-Mobile does, but I,
like 25 million other Americans, use T-Mo and we LIVE here- I think our
holiday-maker friend from the UK will find T-Mo service to be more than
adequate, and very inexpensive compared to other options!

I second your idea about using low-cost calling cards like One-Suite vs.
Skype. Calling cards let you leverage the low costs of VoIP without the
hassles of actually running the VoIP setup yourself, particularly on very
competitive rates like US to UK and vice-versa. One-Suite is a good one.
I used them quite a bit when a friend moved to France for six months.
Cheap, yet decent voice quality.

Todd Allcock wrote:
> At 16 Mar 2007 07:20:32 -0700 SMS wrote:
>>> For every guy like Larry who
>>> uses Skype almost exclusively, there's one like me, who paid $15 for a
>>> year "just in case" and hasn't used a single minute yet this year...
>> Voicestick is free, for "just in case" and you pay by the minute (or
>> you can pay by the year).
>
> I have a Voicestick account as well- it's much cheaper than Skype for
> occasional use and includes the incoming number for free (another
> business model dooomed to failure, I suspect!)

Sadly, I think you're right. Skype has eBay to subsidize it, but the
other VOIP companies are probably doomed. However Voicestick isn't like
Vonage which spends a fortune on advertising. Maybe there's a place for
a niche provider that keeps costs low, just like PagePlus does for
prepaid wireless.

At 16 Mar 2007 09:38:34 -0700 SMS wrote:

> Sadly, I think you're right. Skype has eBay to subsidize it, but the
> other VOIP companies are probably doomed. However Voicestick isn't like
> Vonage which spends a fortune on advertising. Maybe there's a place for
a
> niche provider that keeps costs low, just like PagePlus does for prepaid
> wireless.

I'm sure there's room for a few good low-cost VoIPs, but they'll have to
survive any looming shake-out, then modify their marketing plans
realistically. The marketing VP of Voicestick said on Broadband Reports
that those free accounts cost them $2-3/month each. I've had mine since
November and I've still got $4.80 of my original free $5 balance. So
they're upside down on me and getting deeper every month. Frustrations
with software and hardware would unlikely make them my first choice for
any serious use (but I've used the "cellular bridge" feature to place an
international call or two from my cell instead of needing a no-pin
calling card.)

A service like callwithus.com might be the future of low-cost VoIP-
everything pay-per-use, and you rent a DID based on their actual cost (i.e.

more desirable AC's like NYC's 212 cost more than Peoria, Il's.) This way,

they don't have to subsidize a "free" DID with higher per-min rates.
(Call With Us charges $0.0127 vs. $0.02 at VStick, for example.)

At 17 Mar 2007 02:01:26 +0000 Steven J. Sobol wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, Todd Allcock wrote:
>
> > I have a Voicestick account as well- it's much cheaper than Skype for
> > occasional use and includes the incoming number for free (another
> > business model dooomed to failure, I suspect!)
>
> Incoming minutes are free? or do you get the number for free but still
have to
> pay for the minutes?

Incoming number AND minutes are free. This is nothing new really,
Stanaphone has given free numbers and incoming for free for years, but
they issue New York numbers only- Voicestick lets you choose a number
from almost every area code.