Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: amdcad!amdcad.AMD.COM!rpw3@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Rob Warnock) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Cellular Radio Hazards Message-ID: Date: 31 Mar 89 05:41:24 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: Rob Warnock Organization: [Consultant] San Mateo, CA Lines: 28 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 117, message 6 of 8 In article (John Higdon) writes: +--------------- | > For those reasons alone you're better off stopping to use a pay-phone. | Thank you for your opinion. Unfortunately we now live in the era of | COCOTs (or COPTs, as Pacific Bell refers to them), and it is quite | literally cheaper in many cases to use a cellular telephone... +--------------- And your call might even go through! This morning I hit the situation head on: I was at a breakfast meeting at Coco's in Sunnyvale, when I wanted to call a later appointment to tell him the meeting was going to run over and I'd be late. Being new to cellular, and still somewhat cautious about costs, I dutifully went towards the payphones in the back. Uh, oh, COCOTs! Well, trying the first phone gave me my party, but then the channel was only 1/2 open: I could hear them but they couldn't hear me! I tried the other phone, but it kept spitting back my coin and saying my number was "invalid" and I had to dial again. So I went back to my table and picked up the handheld... The relief from frustration was *worth* the extra 20 cents! Rob Warnock Systems Architecture Consultant UUCP: {amdcad,fortune,sun}!redwood!rpw3 DDD: (415)572-2607 <=== *Not* the mobile! ;-} USPS: 627 26th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94403