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I don't remember many people's phone numbers anymore...
originally posted by: Dapaga
A little relevant history...
In 1992, for about two years, I sold cellular phones. I worked for United States Cellular who, at the time, was one of the larger carriers.
For anyone who might remember, cellular phones were permanently installed in your automobile then. The car battery powered the phone. Some phones could be detached and placed into a "bag" for portability. The bag was a leather pouch which contained a battery and antenna (bag phone).
While employed there, I had a phone installed in my car. This is kind of what it looked like..
As a fun reminder, after about six months in, a true mobile phone, made by Motorola, was introduced to us. This is what it looked like...
This is what it looked like with the extended-life battery....
I don't remember all the costs of the wireless plans, but I believe our largest plan included 1000 minutes for a monthly fee of $250. Anything over your pre-paid minutes cost you $.99 a minute. One second over a minute, cost you the full $.99. Needless say, talking minutes were the golden eggs of early cellular.... especially the roaming minutes.
Every companies' biggest selling point was it's coverage area. The more towers your company owned, the larger your potential coverage area. Each company built their own towers, and they had to obtain all necessary licensing for their territory. No single company had enough towers or territory to offer coverage across the full United States. They fought for territory, and a company couldn't put their towers in another's territory.
If a customer used another company's towers while making a call, they got a roaming charge of about $2 to $4 a minute. In answer to this, some companies made deals with other companies to use their towers, this enabled them to offer an expanded area or reduced roaming fees. If minutes were the golden eggs, towers were the geese that laid them.
As a customer, you could always turn roaming off and therefore be unable to connect to a tower that would charge roaming fees. This would result in a dropped call as you moved off your home towers. Some companies' areas were so small, that just leaving the city limits might cause you to roam and incur unwanted fees if you didn't hang up in time; or it could cause a constant dropping of calls on the edges of the city. Remember, even one second got the full minute charge.
Towers and minutes; the two most valuable things in the early cellular days.
So, what does all this have to do with not using your phone on airplanes?
I had a conversation with the branch manager in his office one day. He informed me that the reason you weren't allowed to use your phone on airplanes was because, "the planes move through the air too fast." As a result, the phone's signal moved too swiftly to track as it bounced from tower to tower. They couldn't accurately charge the necessary roaming fees. Primarily, the use of your phone on an airplane allowed you to "steal" free minutes. In the end, this would mean a significant loss of revenue.
So they struck a deal with the FAA, the FCC, and the airlines.* Together, they agreed to ban the use of cellular phones under the guise of radio interference. It's true; it's a lie. One created to help the cellular companies' bottom lines.
The technology was new at that time, and the average consumer didn't know enough about it to challenge the narrative. I guess when deciding how to phrase the ban, they figured the "greedy corporate interests ban" wasn't going to be very popular. So, they went with the "electronic interference ban." Eventually, as more new technology was developed, the ban expanded to "all electronic devices." It seems some lies are too good to give up. Airlines also saw it as a way to monopolize on and monetize all communications in and out of the plane; anyone remember phones installed on airplanes?
Now that the standard cellular service includes unlimited plans, satellites, and shared towers, the initial rationale for the ban is irrelevant. Yet the ruse continues to this day. I don't know why. Maybe they don't want to admit that they lied. Perhaps it could expose them to potential lawsuits. It could be that the lie still generates some sort of revenue. Who can say?
Regardless of why it still persists, the next time you're in an airplane and you are asked to turn your device off, think of slow towers and fast planes.
*I do not know which entities were involved in making the decision. It was nationally implemented, and later internationally.
originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Scratchpost
I realize you were just having some fun, but I will speak for myself when I say...finding any humor in the events of 9-11 is a tough one for me.
To me it's akin to slagging on someone's dead mom...at their funeral.
Buzz-kill, I know. Sorry.