Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tektronix!percival!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Telecommunicating from the Boonies
Keywords: mobile phone modem computer
Message-ID: <1046@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 7 Sep 88 02:50:49 GMT
References: <249@drd.UUCP>
Reply-To: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Rick's Home Grown Unix; Portland, OR
Lines: 39

In article <249@drd.UUCP> mark@drd.UUCP (Mark Lawrence) writes:
<We have a customer who wants to do some mobile data communication.  He
<has a car phone, see, and a computer and a modem and he wants to
<telecommunicate using his modem and carphone much as if he were at his
<desk.  One problem -- this is in the boonies of western Canada and the
<carphone he has is a radio mobile phone, not the dial-type cellular
<phones we get spoiled with in metro areas.  Seems it works more like a
<CB than a phone.
<
<Question:  does anybody have any pointers as to how to use a modem in a
<situation like this?  Are there special products (which don't require
<the leasing of a satellite channel and special video compression
<equipment or some such hi-tech nonsense) that handle datacomm in this
<kind of situation?  Any experiences and pointers to vendors or
<consultants would be appreciated.

Well, to start with you are going to have to talk to the Canadian equivalent
of the FCC. Mobile phone frequencies are licensed for *voice*, not for data.
Odds are that what he wants to do is illegal.  And if the Canadians are 
anything like the FCC we are talking confiscation of the violating equiipment
(that would include the modem and the computer!), a *large* fine (thousands of
dollars) and a possible jail term.

Also, most of the old-style mobile phone setups aren't compatible with even
an acousticly coupled modem. Aren't the channels simplex?

I think he's going to have to get a license for on of the general radio
service bands, and get a *radio* modem for that band. 

My suggestion is that you contact the equivalent of an FCC field office in
his area and ask them what frequencies he can be licensed to send data on,
and then look for equipment for those frequencies. If he is a business and
thiis is for business use, it'll be much easier. Otherwise he may have to
become a ham...
-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I used to be a hacker. Now I'm a 'microcomputer specialist'.
You know... I'd rather be a hacker."