On 02-Apr-12 17:11, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
wrote:
The analog cell phones of that era supposedly could be switched beteween
the A and B carrier, though I think in practice very people did so.
Hm? Even though the prefix was used to route the inbound call to the
correct cellular network?
My AMPS phones all had menu options controlling whether to prefer A or B
towers, allow roaming to the other one, etc. You couldn't port your
number from one carrier to another at the time, but at least you could
keep your (expensive) phone when switching.
Such settings are generally absent from phones today--and wouldn't do
much good in many cases due to the use of mutually incompatible
protocols (CDMA, GSM, iDEN, etc.). Even between two carriers using the
same protocol, carriers generally "lock" the phones they sell so they
can't be used on another's network; this is the price of getting "free"
or heavily-discounted phones when signing a service contract--but it
also means millions of phones (and their toxic batteries) go into
landfills every year.
S
--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking