Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!netsys!vector!nobody From: brian@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Brian Cuthie) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Question Message-ID: Date: 5 Oct 88 03:40:55 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Reply-To: brian@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Brian Cuthie) Lines: 30 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp (USENET Telecom Moderator) X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 8, issue 152, message 5 X-Submissions-To: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu (Mailing List Coordinator) X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp (USENET Telecom Moderator) In article weinstoc@SEI.CMU.EDU (Chuck Weinstock) writes: >X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp (USENET Telecom Moderator) > >If I call a number associated with a cellular phone, how does the >cellular phone operator know which phone to ring and where it is. I [stuff deleted] Your second guess was correct. When a call comes in, if the cellular phone in question is already involved in a conversation, then the matter is simple. Otherwise, the entire system sends out a page for the phone. When the phone answers, it's location is determined and it is sent a command to ring. In most Cellular One (tm) systems, the clicking you here when you call a cell phone, is designed to keep you on the line while the system pages the phone. Ringback is only heard if the phone is actually located. In typical Bell systems, ringback is given immediately. Then if the phone doesn't answer by the second page, you are transfered to the intercept. Personally, I like the Cell One approach. I would rather not hear "ringing" unless the phone is actually ringing. One trick I sometimes use is to set my Motorola 8000X (the best phone ever made) into the mode where it will not answer pages. Instead, it beeps like a pocket pager. Since it doesn't answer the page the caller gets transfered to the voice-mail system. I know I've gotten a message because the phone beeps. Then I can call at *my* convenience. -brian