Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 12:08:56 -0500
Reply-To: Jorge Osorio <josorio@PIGSEYE.KENNESAW.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jorge Osorio <josorio@PIGSEYE.KENNESAW.EDU>
Subject: Re: cell phones (was:FGA) No Vanagon Content but it's Friday!
In-Reply-To: <05cf01c2be45$76976790$319c4094@BILLPC>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Bill, would you care to elaborate on the Internet connectivity at this
Walmart Deprived place? (I notice your @starband.net)
I know I said this had no Vanagon Content but does your ISP offers Mobile
Satellite Internet???
Jorge
On Fri, 17 Jan 2003, Bill N wrote:
> This must vary from place to place. I live in a very sparsely populated area in SE Arizona.
> The town I am near is 2500 people, and it is a 45 minute drive to a town with about 10,000
> people (and a Walmart!!). On that drive you don't pass any buildings. My work takes me all
> over Cochise County, since I work with many ranchers, and I get into some very remote areas.
> In addition, the whole area is mountainous, with elevations ranging from 3500' to over 9000'.
> I have used a cell phone for 8 years, and except for extremely rare cases when I manage to get
> into the bottom of a deep canyon, I never have a problem. I find my phone to be very reliable.
>
> Bill
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Brodbeck" <gull@CYBERSPACE.ORG>
> > > At 02:37 AM 1/17/2003, zampano wrote:
> > > > How come cell phones still are horribly
> > > >unreliable all over the U.S?? When I could use them in Italy,
> > > >Switzerland and Germany 8 years ago on mountain peaks, valleys, subway
> > > >stations, anywhere except tunnels???
> > >
> > > Have you compared the sizes? Germany for example, has a helicopter/trauma
> > > center setup that can get people to a trauma center from anywhere in the
> > > country in fifteen minutes. This is great, but they have only about
> > > one-eighth the land mass per inhabitant (230/km^2 vs 27/km^2 ten or fifteen
> > > years ago)
> >
> > That's part of it, but another major difference is that Europe
> > standardized on one digital cell phone standard. In the U.S., there
> > wasn't the political will to do this, so we have three completely
> > incompatible phone networks. For everyone to get reliable service the
> > whole country has to be covered in triplicate! This is one case where a
> > little more government intervention would have benefited everyone.
>
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