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Paying Twice for Cellphone Service
by Andrew McCaskey
Paying Twice
Cynics among us have often noted that the Killer App, when it arrives, will be some form of digital voice. With nearly 20 years of cellphone experience from analog 800Mhz through TDMA, CDMA, GSM and various steps in between, the continued problem of dropped calls, distorted signals and general unreliability have plagued users. Of course, our wonder in the ability to have any signal at all from the middle of a cornfield miles from any town with the original bag phones was quickly superceded by annoyance when the signal dropped or calls failed to complete.
Obviously the levels of service, numbers of subscribers, and network complexity have increased tremendously (along with our expectations) . As an AT&T subscriber (in a house with aluminum siding) it’s a major pain to suffer continually dropping calls. As a result, I’ve been very tempted by various extender boxes that promise solutions, allowing my network connection to perform the backhaul. Still, I’m a bit resentful on dropping three or four hundred additional dollars on a repeater system that should restore my service (and my neighbors as well) – I figure that I have already paid my roughly $100 a month for the service.
As long as WiFi meets the need for backhaul, some clever combination of Fring, SkypeOut and Google Voice should be the work around. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get the good Wifi signal levels out in the backyard. But that seems to be doable for less than $400.
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