[at-l] Cell Phones, yet again - the 'rules'

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 04:02 PM 4/17/2005 -0400, Greg Brown wrote:
>I'm almost sorry for brining this hot button issue up.  The last thing
>I'll say on this topic is I'm not going to carry a phone to annoy
>people, I'm going to carry a phone because that is what my personal
>situation dictates I do.  I'll try not to annoy anyone on the trial
>with it's use and I don't plan on having it on all the time, just now
>and then so I can stay in contact with home.

There's nothing unreasonable about that. I would consider carrying one 
myself to use in towns since pay phones are rapidly disappearing.

BTW I heard a story on NPR a few days ago about a company that has designed 
a modern high altitude dirigible that they plan on deploying at about half 
the altitude that geo-stationary satellites are orbited. The plan is to use 
them for satellite cell phone service and create a network with no dead 
zones and no need for towers. The dirigibles would fly above the jet stream 
and like satellites would be fixed in relation to a location on the ground.

I'm sure there are some on the list who will think that is a terrible thing 
as it would mean that cell phones would work virtually everywhere. I expect 
however that continued expansion of coverage is inevitable and I'd rather 
see a space or near space based system than to continue the profusion of 
towers.