my ot rant, happy tuesday, phone bill, 1 collect call Options

[rhodyguy]

on the way to jp's i made a collect call from a pay phone. the 3 minute call cost $19.80!!! $3.30 for the actual call. $7.00 for the operator fee. $9.50 for the OWNER of the pay phone. what a racket!!! so i call ZERO PLUS DIALING which turns out to be the billing co. then i get the info for LEGACY LD INTL INC. turns out they are the long distance provider. so i asked "who owns the phone"? " due to our privacy agreement we cannot provide than info". rude people and i wasn't in the mood. the customer service people that work for those 2 co's have the worst jobs in the world. dealing with VERY PISSED off people for 8 hours a day. oh, after the numerous taxes were tacked on, the total was $22.14. i was one angry guy yest am. "did you ask the operater how much it would cost before you called?", "no, how much would that of cost me?", "$7.00". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

kevin

[Joe Bob]

I work for Motorola. I head up a department that installs the cellular networks for some major operators (ALLTEL, Sprint, Verizon) and when it comes to coverage there are a TON of factors for why coverage is good or bad in certain areas.

One of the biggest factors are the local governments and citizen action groups that don't want that "ugly big tower" near their homes. I understand that, I don't either BUT these are the same people that complain that there cellular service sucks (not saying MikeZ doesn't have a vaild complaint).

Not to bore you with all the technical BS but a digital cellsite only has a footprint of about 3 miles on flat land. Add houses, trees, tall buildings, lakes it all affects the coverage area (aka footprint) and as more people are using that site the more noise is produced on the signal the digital coverage shrinks to produce more power to cover and area. Now ad in the factor that you are moving (walking,driving)
well you get the picture. I am not saying that there needs to be a tower every 100 feet but there is A LOT of factors in cellular coverage.

I only use my cellphone when I am out of my office (I work from home) so I don't use it much. Coverage in my house sucks and a Verizon tower is only 1 mile away. But looking at it I can tell that the antennas are tilted to cover the Indaian toll road whick makes
sense since there is a lot more people on the road using their phones then people sitting at home with it.

Sorry for the long boring post.

- Garold

I agree....AT&T as sucky as they were had a cell site down the hill from my house,,,that's the only reason I got reception there. But it was spotty in other areas in town.

Team Mobile my new provider is not so spotty in town but lousy at my house....

Our local elected officials and city government, long may they suck and blow diseased cocks in hell, have put a moratorium on building cell sites.