Wireless News and Comments from the Mountain
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My Circle gives you the ability to program the phone numbers of ten people, wireless or wireline, Alltel network or not, for your "circle" of Free calling. If this comes together as planned, it will be programmable online, and all calls to people in this "circle" will be included in your 'Mobile to Mobile"-like minutes, which should be Free and even Unlimited. I just checked my call history and found less than 10 numbers I called all week. Some of us will have finally reached unlimited calling.
Alltel is possibly the highest-rated carrier among those reviewed by Mountain Wireless, and this just may move them even one more step farther ahead of everyone else.

Alltel isn't giving away the store, this feature will only be available with plans $59.99 and higher. But Sprint's 7pm Nights, and Alltel's wider Circle of free calling gets us one step closer to not counting your minutes. Is it too much to hope for?

April 1, 2006. (no foolin') T-Mobile Giveth...and T-Mobile Taketh Away. I'm sitting by the beach in Mexico and there's always a few cellular laughs down here, but this one is about one of our favorite U.S. carriers, T-Mobile. The T-Mobile web site recently added customer-specific information ("My T-Mobile") for "T-Mobile to Go" prepaid customers. On those pages, they mention that T-Mobile to Go customers can now use their phone in Canada and Mexico. I have lots of minutes on my T-Mobile to Go phone, so the $1.49 per minute roaming charge was not a big deal.

I called T-Mobile's pre-paid customer service, which is different than their post paid customer service, to confirm. The pleasant agent convey that "all T-Mobile to Go phones were enabled to roam in Mexico and Canada," but manual network selection may be required. When I turned on my T-Mobile phone at the airport in Mexico, nothing happened, and a Manual Network selection produced no results. So, at my next access to a computer, I contacted T-Mobile's Customer Care by email to see what was the problem. The replies were notable. I will only partially quote because so many of the same words went back and forth.

Reply 1: "Sorry you're having a problem. I can find no problem with your account. I will forward your problem to Technical Care"
Reply 2: "...your account seems to be properly set up. What model phone are you using?"
Reply 3: "...currently the T-Mobile to Go service will only work on T-Mobile towers in the USA only. Outside of the US is currently not supported. For roaming in outher(sic) countries, you would need to be using the monthly service."
Reply 4: "What networks do you see available? The only network you will be able to register on while in Mexico is Telefonica, any other network will not work. I will forward your problem to Technical Care."
Reply 5: "T-Mobile-to-go accounts and roaming are in the testing stages and we cannot guarantee the availability of this service. We can tell you that you may be able to connect to the Mexican Telefonica network using a manual network selection. If you are unable to connect to this service then you will not be able to have service with a (T-Mobile to Go) pre paid account and will need to activate a regular account to enable you to have International Roaming permission."
Reply 6: "On the Web site, it mentions International Dialing where you are able to call other countries with your phone service. This does not include International roaming where you travel to another country. It can be easy to get these confused with each other."
Reply 7: "Bill, T-Mobile To Go roaming is in a testing stage but you are able to roam with our roaming partner Mexico (Telefonica). You should not have any difficulties if you do the manual network selection and choose Telefonica. "

So, what have we learned here? That T-Mobile to Go should work in Mexico...or not? It looks like the official word is, if it works, it works. If it doesn't, too bad. And, that if you keep asking T-Mobile questions, they'll keep coming up with answers. It makes me feel really good when every email ends with, "As a valued customer, thank you for choosing T-Mobile. We appreciate your business." Well, that makes me feel better that my phone doesn't work. That, and a return to the beach bar for another margarita. Hola Amigo! (Oh, let me explain, "Amigo" is Telcel's prepaid service which works very well, here).

BTW, on this trip, the Verizon phone works perfectly. Nuts, no story, there.

March 24, 2006. T-Mobile Wins One...at a Time. She's just one person in my office, but she was asking me about a number on her cell phone. "Oh, what service do you have," I asked. "Cingular, and it doesn't work very well," was the reply. I told her it was indeed the weakest service in our office, but she said it was bad everywhere, and listed all the places she's had Cingular trouble. She tried to get a new phone, but the AT&T-to-Cingular customer thing was just too much of a hassle...and expense.

It doesn't matter that Cingular eventually became a little friendlier to ex-AT&T customers, she wanted out, but didn't know where to go. I asked how she used her phone and within 10 seconds I recommended that she head for the nearest T-Mobile store. I could hear the doubt in her voice, but she said she'd think about it. Two days later she came to work with nothing but glowing things to say about her visit to the nearby T-Mobile store...except for one thing...her new phone didn't work. I assured her it was relatively common for a phone not to work out of the box (a sad story by itself), but I know she really hated to go back. Wouldn't you?

The true measure of a business is how they handle a customer when things go wrong, not when they go right, and T-Mobile handled this problem very well. "No problem," she was told, and within minutes she was out the door with a working phone. During her brief wait she heard more than one customer at the T-Mobile store sharing sad experiences with Cingular.

To my colleague, it did not matter that T-Mobile is not number one in coverage across the country. She was far more impressed with the effort made at the T-Mobile store to make this one customer happy. She bought a slightly more expensive phone than I recommended, and she signed up for a slightly more expensive plan, "just in case." It was no small deal was that she was able to port her old number to the new phone within hours, and she only needed a one year contract.

Making this one customer happy assures that I, and everyone my friend talks to, will get a positive referral to T-Mobile. Yes, the power of one can easily multiply to many. How many people will read this and be influenced? That would give me a warm fuzzy, but nothing makes me happier than knowing that T-Mobile took care of my friend, just like I said they would. Now, can I tell you about how just one little thing said at a car dealer to my wife killed a sale, which was won by another dealer who treated her like her one little sale made all the difference in their business? It's the same reason we include Customer Service in our carrier reviews.

March 17, 2006 Cingular Improves Their...uh, Marketing. It's always nice to hear when a wireless carrier makes an improvement, and now, Cingular has made a big one. They now have "Fewer Dropped Calls"! Isn't that nice? I wonder who is doing the counting. I need to go no farther than my office to find a Cingular dead zone, where, you got it, I get dropped calls. I have no more...and no less, than last year. But their advertising says there are fewer dropped calls, so how can it be otherwise?

Once again, never underestimate the gullibility of the average American consumer. Cingular still sucks in our building, and they have improved the marketing, but not their signal. I was a bit surprised when colleagues would finally admit their Cingular phone did not have service inside our offices, and what can they do. After a few questions and answers, i usually send them to T-Mobile for their Get More plan with 1,000 anytime minutes for $39.99. T-Mobile works well in the building, and very few users go where T-Mobile isn't.

Has this happened before...Cingular users going to T-Mobile? It must have because now Cingular is offering the same 1,000/$39.99 plan as T-Mobile. Of course, there's no Free Nights & Weekends, no Free Mobile to Mobile, and, how can this be, no Rollover. Of course my co-workers are quick point out this new plan as if they were somehow misdirected about their recent choice. You want that new Cingular plan? Do you suddenly not care about not having service? "Well, they now have fewer dropped calls." Oh my, the marketing machine has kicked in, and they're eating it all up.

What's the best part of Cingular's new marketing? The fact that the other carriers see it, too. Verizon, who once sported a 1,000-minute plan of its own, albeit local, may feel it's time to reintroduce it. This time, though, it can't be local. We're getting spoiled, and even though we may never wander beyond the next county or two, we want our "National" service. And Sprint, watching their customer numbers drop faster than the price of American SUV's, just might want to aim for 1,000 as the same price level as well.

While it's great to see a price war, however small, it's also gratifying to see big old Cingular responding to little ol' T-Mobile. It's as if they have my desk bugged and are hearing the customers eagerly switch to T-Mobile.

Oh, and what about all those new cell sites promised in the west? Anybody see any of them? Some of them turned up in California, but the others? If you see one, let us know. I'm beginning to think the same marketing department that claimed fewer dropped calls, are using the same criteria to measure all these new cell sites. That's OK, they'll be busy soon learning how to convince people that AT&T Wireless isn't the Evil Empire after all.

Another Cingular Improvement: New Tower Maps. Our Mountain Wireless cell site finder page now includes Cingular cell sites. Not all of them, but all those that belong to Cingular and are available for co-location. Oh my, now we know where there aren't any new Cingular cell sites.

March 10, 2006. What Goes Around Comes Around. And what is coming around again is AT&T Wireless. It was a sad day to lose another competitor when Cingular took over AT&T Wireless. It wasn't as sad, but still a bit troubling when SBC took over AT&T. And no tears were shed when SBC decided to adopt the AT&T name. But now our emotions have turned to laughs. It is sooooo funny to realize AT&T Wireless is coming back.

Part of the fun is how much value changing names really has. People who wouldn't consider doing business with SBC, or Cingular, will be more willing to do business with AT&T. Yes, we are dealing with a wolf in sheep's clothing. But I think this will work. I never underestimate how the average American can be influenced by image and marketing. I can hear my AT&T Wireless friends breathing a collective sigh of relief.

So many of them have been holding on to their old AT&T phones and are now thinking life will get back to normal. 'Good ol' AT&T Wireless is back, and they'll help me upgrade.' The people who brought us OneRate will save us, right? Fortunately, this particular change is neither good nor bad for those of us who hate to see the loss of another carrier. Bellsouth won't be a loss among wireless competitors. It just puts the center of the communications universe much closer to San Antonio, Texas. It's Mom's new home, ya know, Ma...Ma Bell?


Speaking of AT&T Wireless innovations, one of their original ideas was to include one landline number among your Family Share plan members. Well, what's old is new again. Sprint and Alltel have brought it back. Now, you can have unlimited calling among other users on the same network, and one landline of your choosing. It will be interesting to see if this idea catches on. Of course, they aren't doing this as a public service. It's a gimmick. A gimmick that will require us to sign up for a new plan, sign another 2-year contract, or pay just a little bit more each month. Remember Sprint's first gimmick?Free Long Distance? Who would believe such a thing!

March 3, 2006. Does Sprint Want to Keep Their Customers? For many years, Sprint had one of the most competitive programs in the wireless industry. Internally they called it "Retention". If you called to cancel your account after your contract term was up, you were connected to a "cancellation specialist" whose job it was to see if you could be convinced to stay with Sprint if they could get you in to a better plan. After using this procedure for some time, lots of Sprint customers got wise and asked to cancel their service knowing they would get a better deal, when, in fact, they had no intention of leaving.

As a customer, you needed to be coy and word your request carefully. If you asked to be transferred to "Retention" they knew you were familiar with what was going on and you were refused. Some of those agents were well-trained. Their objective was to determine what it would take to legitimately retain your business. Some customers could be swayed with a few more minutes for the same price, others would settle for some extra features. Then there's the bottom-line group like me who would settle for nothing less than a substantial reduction in price.

From Sprint's perspective, they may have felt they were encouraging people to negotiate their renewal when other carriers didn't want, or need, to give a better deal. It appears now that the free ride is over. Regular agents are ready to accept your cancellation, and, while they still have some offers to lure you back into the fold, they aren't anywhere near the level of the more generous Retention offers.

The internet is full of people willing to post the process, and brag about the great Retention offer they have. I also have personal friends who remark about the great deal they now have with Sprint. I felt it was a great method to maintain customer loyalty and reduce churn. But Sprint must have seen their Average Rate Per Unit drop, or at least not increase as fast as they'd like. So Retention seems to have gone away.

Unfortunately, that just may be the world we live in. It's not good enough to have customers. Corporate America needs customers who can pay them a larger fee to make their stock look better on Wall Street. It may also translate to fewer employees, and, of course, that may yield fewer people who can afford a cellular phone, or at least one at the price that these large companies want to charge. It looks to me like a downward spiral, but for now, that's next quarter's problem.

In the meantime, while they still have some employees, they now have a Sprint Employee Referral Offer (SERO). Once again, the requirements to get a SERO plan are pretty loose, and there's a market for those who can get you in to a SERO plan. This isn't a bad thing, there's nothing like a customer who feels like he's 'gotten away with something'. How may times have you left a car dealership telling yourself 'boy I can't believe what a great deal I just got', while the salesman watches you drive away saying 'boy I can't believe what a great price I got from that sucker!' It's all in how it's marketed. Yes, you've marketed well when you hit 'em in the head and they say, "thank you sir can I have another?"

February 24, 2006. Our New PRL Page One of our most popular pages, the Mountain Wireless PRL Page has been updated. We felt the old page was becoming too large, too hard to read, and too slow to download. Now the actual PRL's on the new page are the current ones only, or, at least, the most current we can find. We figured as more carriers go to 'no roaming' plans, the PRL's would become less important, but the opposite is true. And, of course, there is a link to the old page if that's what you're really looking for.


Another Verizon License Boo-Boo. A few months ago Verizon Wireless allowed one of it FCC licenses to expire, the one in suburban Denver under the name of Suburban Cellular. Another company, Keystone Wireless, attempted to capitalize on the oversight by applying for the licenses under Phase II FCC rules. These are the rules that allow carriers to apply for coverage in "unserved" areas. Of course, this area is not unserved, Verizon just forgot to renew their license. The FCC wisely rejected Keystone's application.

But Keystone won't go away and have applied for reconsideration. This application should also be denied, but not because of any legality. This licensed area includes the mountain community of Nederland, which is like a suburb of Boulder, but even more of a hideout for old hippies and social outcasts. One Nederland resident, an immigrant from Norway, lamented the passing of his father, and felt his disease was curable, and the parent just needed a second chance. So the son put his Dad on ice...dry ice that is, and has kept him in a shed in town, frozen, until a cure is found for his disease. For a time, Nederland was a local laughingstock until the story went global. Now they have embraced their ice bound resident and even celebrate an annual "Frozen Dead Guy Festival". That's where Verizon comes in.

Verizon recently applied for a new cell site north of town, and, because all cell sites have a name, chose the obvious: the "FROZEN DEAD GUY cell site". I say if a company has the wisdom to add to their corporate nomenclature an indigenous name that is somewhat out of the ordinary, they deserve to hold on to their licenses. Huzzahs to Verizon.

We are now hoping for some other sites to also be appropriately named. We are waiting for the 'DRUNKEN SAILOR PASSED OUT HERE' cell site in San Diego, or the 'VICE PRESIDENTIAL HUNTING PARTY' cell site in Jackson, WY. Oh, there could be so much more.

February 17, 2006. Updates on T-Mobile, Cingular and Plateau Wireless. Many are asking 'what took you so long', but it is big news that T-Mobile has finally added roaming on several other GSM carriers across the country. And, as some retailers claim, that includes their prepaid service, T-Mobile To Go, which is highly recommended by Mountain Wireless. As the word of this improvement spread through forums and newsgroups, T-Mobile users were excited, especially at the prospect of roaming on Cingular.

The problem is that these people aren't looking forward to having new areas of the country where they can use their phone, they are hoping that Cingular will be available locally in those areas where T-Mobile has service, but suffers from dead spots. I just don't have the heart to tell these people that not only is Cingular not (yet) included among these new roaming agreements, they won't be included in most areas where T-Mobile already has service. It seems they love their T-Mobile phone, except for the times when they're at home/work/pizza shop and it doesn't work. I guess if they want Cingular coverage, maybe they should get Cingular service.


Meanwhile, Cingular is finally playing catch up with their own version of high speed broadband service. Verizon and Sprint have had it for some time, and it has finally arrived in a few Cingular markets. One newspaper reporter wrote how expensive the new service is. I think there's a lot of people who'd rather pay these cellular carriers about $60 a month than the typical wi-fi carrier as much as $7 a day.


We were recently reminded about a customer who became so disgusted with his Plateau Wireless (New Mexico) service, he spend much time and energy taking his case to the local Better Business Bureau. Eventually he was relieved of his Plateau contract without penalty. He contacted us to confirm that our lower-than-average reviews of Plateau were dead on. He found out Plateau has earned a "D" grade with the BBB. Unfortunately, he found our information after he signed up for service.

We often have positive words for Plateau as they are the only carrier with service in a few northern New Mexico towns where we visit. Apparently, having no service is better than Plateau's bad service. We recently peeked into Plateau's web site to see if anything had changed, and it had. They now offer a prepaid service called Plateau To Go. Refill cards? Who needs 'em? "...adding more minutes is easy. Simply bring your phone to the nearest Plateau location or participating agent and we can add minutes to your Plateau To Go account." Wow, what could be more convenient than driving down to the store and having them scoop out another 100 minutes and fill up your phone? That's almost as good as the offer I received last week for Qwest DSL. Among other exciting features, their service included "free self-installation." How can we pass up such great deals?

February 10, 2006. "I Agree With Your Ratings, Except..." Of all the dust we could have stirred up, nothing generates the email better than our Mountain Wireless Ratings Page. Consumer Reports boils down their ratings to a single number with plentiful discussion about them. While we also present our carrier ratings as a "total" number, we also show the numbers that contribute to that total. It's the giving T-Mobile a "4" or Nextel a "0" that gets some people irritated enough to have them sit down and challenge our numbers.

This lead to us adding a short explanation of why each carrier gets the ratings it gets. Also, we 'adjust' some of the numbers as things changed with these carriers. An example is improving T-Mobile's roaming score after they added more roaming partners. The difference between a "4" and a "5" rating for coverage can mean different things to different people. To us, it means one carrier has coverage in a few more areas than the next carrier. But for a real fan of Sprint to see T-Mobile receive a higher number for 'on-network' coverage is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

There are quite a few people who cannot believe Cingular can have the 'largest network' and not have the best coverage ratings. Of course their 'largest' boast refers only to the number of subscribers, and just barely at that. Yes, in a handful of areas, the combination of the AT&T and Cingular networks improved the 'new' Cingular's performance considerably. But so has the combination of the Sprint and Qwest networks. And of course, if a network like T-Mobile suffers from a lack of coverage in some areas, many people feel the larger number of minutes available from T-Mobile make up for most coverage shortcomings.

Are these complaints coming from people who feel our opinion is dated or off-base, or are they a little biased toward their own carrier? I know I've written these words before, but we have good reason to defend our choice of spouse, house or car. But our wireless carrier? If I spent a few hundred bucks on a T-Mobile Razr and then see T-mobile rated lower than some other carrier, my first thought is I wasted a few hundred bucks. But wait, that's not right. If I spent the money, I must be right...so the ratings must be wrong. My phones are purchased for between zero and $100 and they get the job done. I will never underestimate the joy received from someone who spends 5 times more, and I guess I should accept their criticism when they see the network connected to that phone is not 'The Best.'

I will be the first to admit each carrier has the potential to be 'The Best.' But allow us to compare, say, T-Mobile and Sprint, side-by-side, and choosing one as better than the other. It will be a sad day, though, if all the carriers eventually end up with identical numbers. How will we compare them then? By their spokesperson? Catherine Zeta-Jones gets a "10", but if Cingular hires Angelina Jolie, we may have to 'adjust' the ratings, again.

February 3, 2006. More Phones Have Gone Extinct. A few weeks ago we commented on the complaints we had received about users not being able to activate their non-E911 compliant CDMA phones. A similar milestone passed this week when the last AT&T re-seller, Beyond Wireless, ended the activation of TDMA phones. The sad part of this passing is the loss of a very competitively-priced service.

As reported here, Cingular states they will no longer support TDMA and plans to turn off TDMA cell sites in the first quarter of 2008. So the clock is ticking on all existing TDMA phones, many of which are still working perfectly. It also makes us wonder, who is buying all those old TDMA phones on eBay, and what will they do with them? Companies like Beyond will still be able to re-sell Cingular GSM service, but at much less attractive rates.

There have also been rumors that another re-seller, STI Mobile, will begin charging a daily fee for their service whether you use the phone or not. Granted the fee may be only .10, but it adds up to a steep $3 per month charge instead of the one call every two months requirement. Alltel introduce a new prepaid service, called "U", and while it has the potential to be much cheaper than its previous prepaid plans, it is the most confusing plan we have seen. You need to sit down with a pencil, a calculator and a calendar to see if it works for you. This time they toss in a financial penalty for not using your phone once a month. I guess that's better that losing service altogether.

Another one of our favorite prepaid offerings, Alltel's Simple Freedom, seems to be disappearing from the shelves of many Wal-Mart stores. It has not yet been determined whether this has been an across-the-board decision on the part of Wal-Mart, or if Alltel will no longer offer the service in non-Alltel markets. Wal-Mart has already started to offer their own Wal-Mart-branded cellular service outside the U.S.

The prepaid scene is changing quickly, and many of these moves threaten to move prepaid service back out of the mainstream and into the fringes. Remembering to refill a prepaid account, on exactly the 30th, 45th or 90th day is quite a challenge. The loss of any long- or non-expiring prepaid minutes is going to make prepaid far less desirable. But even worse, the daily, or monthly fee that is deducted, even without using the phone, is an even bigger slap in the face.

I hope Dave Markson can keep up to date on these changes on his Prepaid Comparison page, we need it now more than ever.

January 27, 2006. Your Phone Records For Sale! We've warned you here to not be the first person to have the latest phone, watch what you blog about your employer, and keep a charger in the glove box for your spare phone. Now, we must be careful who we call! The latest warning is how easy it is to access your cellular calling records. There are web sites that offer such information for less than $100. But since it can happen, and has happened, to members of the U.S. Congress, legislation is already in the works to prevent such information from being available. The wireless carriers are backpedaling and going after these web sites that are offering these phone records that the carriers themselves initially provided!

It at least causes us to pause and think, would we care who knew what numbers we called? I've actually thought this through when considering whether or not I care that the neighbors can eavesdrop on my cordless phone conversations. But I thought if I wanted to make a stealth phone call, I could use one of my several 'extra' phones. Since they're all prepaid, they really don't know who I am, or do they? On one phone I did give customer service my name and address to convince them I needed a local phone number, and mostly because they asked.

On a second phone, I had a brief chat with a nice customer service agent who never asked anything more personal than my home area code. In retrospect, I did give them a complete name, address and phone number on my rebate application, so they should know me if they wanted. Another one of my phones was set up with no human intervention. I entered the SIM number, my credit card number and poof, the phone's number arrived as a text message. It shouldn't be too difficult to associate my phone number with my credit card and then my name and address. The only thing these prepaid companies shouldn't have is my social security number. But they should have enough information to associate my name with my calls.

Of course our current administration sees no problem with tapping phones and records in the name of national security, but anyone with a few bucks and the right URL can find out what numbers you've been calling. So, now I realize after the fact, there's no need to tell these prepaid carriers the truth when they ask for a name, and pay for your wireless refill with cash.

January 20, 2006. Look Who Has More Than One Phone! I usually don't talk about my small collection of phones...people just wouldn't understand. Having one for each carrier (except Cricket) makes perfect sense when you write about and review cellular service, but it's not something you start a conversation with. But looking around at the office, I'm seeing several colleagues with multiple cellular phones, so I asked why.

Several people have one phone for voice calls, and a second for data, or more accurately, for email and text messaging. There's a few who slap that huge keyboard model upside their face, reminding one of the good old days of brick-sized phones, just a lot thinner. Some of the folks disguise their actual number of phones, but the continual attachment of the Bluetooth headset is more akin to an episode of Star Trek than StarTac.

Then there are the ones who have two plain old voice phones. Why? One is a 'personal' phone, and the other is a 'company' phone. Why continue both? "Why not" is usually the answer. The second phone is free. For most users, the company phone is good enough, but I can understand that when the weekend comes, answering the company phone is not a top priority. And the others?

A few employees have company-supplied wireless phones with no strings attached. The boss knows the number, but rarely has reason to call. The phones are part of a special deal with a certain carrier, and yes, one or two people did drop their old service or gave it to a family member. But the rest of the 'lucky' dozen (I'm not one of them) still steadfastly hold on to their old phone...even the aging AT&T TDMA phones. The reasons they claim for holding on to the old phone vary, but it boils down to the fact that "their" phone is part of their identity, their persona. To give it up is to yield to the power of the company.

Then there's the batch of users who have a shiny new phone, packed with features, from a new carrier, and they just can't bring themselves to pay the Early Termination Fee. For whatever reason, they just had to have the new phone, and hadn't given much thought to the old one until they called to cancel. It's less painful to just keep paying for the old one until the contract expires...when was that, anyway? It was as much of a surprise to me as was the number of users who go WAY over their monthly allotment of minutes just because they're too busy, or ignorant, to call and change to a more economical plan.

So, now I don't feel so awkward walking the hall checking the office voice mail with one cellular phone, with another hanging obediently on my belt. The awkward moment does come when no one answers that unidentified phone ringing on that unidentified desk. "It can't be mine, both of mine are right here with me", right?


Update on Roaming in Mexico. Contrary to the opinion of the average Verizon customer service agent, there are additional charges above and beyond the .69 per minute roaming fee for calls made and received in Mexico. There is also a long distance charge which varies by distance to the U.S. border, and then there's the additional local tax, oh, and the province surcharge. And contrary to the opinion of the average Mexican cellular kiosk sales person, calls within Mexico are charged long distance based on the home market of the called phone, not the actual location of that phone. It's a tribute to modern technology that calls can be delivered so far from home, but it's rough to get it at 1980's prices. If we could just get gas at prices from that decade.