[geeks] International calling question

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 04:18:34PM -0400, John Francini wrote:
>
>Interesting; my wife and I both have cell phones, but we still have a  
>landline.  I've broached the subject of getting rid of the landline,  
>but that runs into the unanswerable brick wall: "The land line has  
>*never* failed to work for us".  And, modulo someone hitting a  
>telephone pole, it hasn't.  The reliability of the old-tech POTS  
>service is far higher than anything else.  Cable failure happens  
>regularly.  Cell towers can get overloaded.  But the landline keeps  
>humming for us, even when the power fails.

I guess it depends upon where you are. Back in the days I cared, the
phone system "crashed" occasionaly, and aDSL lines here are notoriously
buggy. 

We also don't have a 911 or 999 system, so you can't use that reason
either.

Our carrier, Orange, actually runs 3 networks, so there is not a big
chance of it being overloaded, but it's possible (900mHz GSM, 1800mHz GSM,
and 2.1gHz 3g). Our phones are 900/1800. 

As for one cell going down, the maximum range due to timing is 35km, and
there are plenty of cells that close almost anywhere in the country.

I used to have a pay-as-you-go phone on another network, but I lent it
to someone who promptly disapeared. That network upgraded to GSM, so for
the cost of a SIM, I can have one on theirs too. 

If all else fails, if the power is on, I can use a ham radio, and I have
a 2m handheld ready if it's off.

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM