Frank Erskine wrote:

My current "favourite" Americanism is the announcement on a delayed
aeroplane that "the airplane will be taking off momentarily".

You hear "for a moment"; we hear "in a moment".

Well, we hear the stewardess begging us not to panic because she really
has no idea how much longer it will be till we have a take-off slot.

On 30/03/2012 21:17, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Right. Callers from outside your country sure appreciate that
caller pays surcharge on top of the charge for international long distance,
as it's not readily apparent to foreigners that caller pays applies.

Anyone dialling from outside the UK can spot a UK mobile number as
it will start +44 7... (where + is 011 for NANP countries).

It's up to your calltime provider to advise you how much calls will
cost. (Who else can say?) As a random example AT&T quote separate
landline and wireless rates to various countries so it should be
readily apparent to anyone who bothers to check international calling
rates before dialling:
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/in.../in-the-us.jsp

--
Graham Nye
news(a)thenyes.org.uk

On 30/03/2012 21:08, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
Graham Nye wrote:

Guy is pointing out that you are cross-
posting to two newsgroups where we call such devices
mobiles.

So if "cellular" is an international concept, is it acceptable to everyone
else for Guy to pretend to be obtuse?

It's fine with me. If you're not interested in how things are done
in the UK why are you cross-posting to UK newsgroups?

In the United States, they are called cell phones and mobile phones.
Some networks marketed the service with one term or the other. I believe
"cell" was the marketing term by some networks in early days...

IIRC they were also called cell phones in the UK back when analogue
cellular systems were new, complete with diagrams of hexagonal cells
covering the countryside. Mention of cell or cellular has fallen out
of use in the UK to be replaced by "mobile". But language keeps
moving on and for younger people (say, teens and twenties) mobiles
may just be referred to as "phones" now, as landline phones are
something only their parents will have.



--
Graham Nye
news(a)thenyes.org.uk

Graham Nye writes:
Guy is pointing out that you are cross-
posting to two newsgroups where we call such devices
mobiles.

So if "cellular" is an international concept, is it acceptable to everyone
else for Guy to pretend to be obtuse?

It's fine with me. If you're not interested in how things are done
in the UK why are you cross-posting to UK newsgroups?

Wait, what exactly is the argument here...?

I mean, it's not as if anybody was actually confused by what Adam said...

-miles

--
Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a
pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but
abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.

John Levine writes:
the actual price per minute
(including the incoming calls which mobile users in caller pays areas
incorrectly think are "free") is among the lowest in the world.

I suspect that's more because Americans are super, duper, cheap...

-miles

--
Freebooter, n. A conqueror in a small way of business, whose annexations lack
of the sanctifying merit of magnitude.

On Mar 19, 6:05*pm, Graeme Wall wrote:

That's expensive, it was a pound a minute (off-peak) UK - Kenya at that
time.

In the 1980s new circuits and improved technology greatly increased
the number of calls that could be handled, and lower the cost. This
likewise applied to US long distance calls.

In the 1970s, terminal equipment was still so expensive that sometimes
it was cheaper to simply run copper between two points rather than
carrier circuits. It's hard to believe how much the cost of
electronics has plummeted since then.

The high cost of electronics was a reason that step-by-step switching
equipment remained the best choice for many years. The peak
deployment of SxS wasn't reached until 1974--that is, up to 1974 they
were still adding SxS lines despite the availability of crossbar and
ESS.

On Mar 30, 12:25*pm, "Adam H. Kerman" wrote:

Because the original mobile carriers were all subsidiaries of the incumbent
land line telephone companies, they thought in land-line terms.

As I recall it, when cell phone service was finally authorized, there
was to be _two_ competing carriers in a region--one the traditional
wireline carrier, the other a newcomer. 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.

Also, I do not believe the wire line carrier thought in traditional
terms. They set up subsidiaries that operated differently with a
different rate model. Obvious differences were that the cell phone
subscriber paid for incoming calls, and that timing ran from 'send' to
'end', not from answer to hangup. (This meant if you called someone
who took a while to answer, you were paying just to hear the phone
ring.)

On Mar 30, 2:14*pm, Bruce wrote:
Guy Gorton wrote:

What is a cell phone? *Used in prisons?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone

The Bell System Technical Journal has a series of detailed articles on
the development of cellular technology.

On Mar 30, 4:08*pm, "Adam H. Kerman" wrote:

In the United States, they are called cell phones and mobile phones.
Some networks marketed the service with one term or the other. I believe
"cell" was the marketing term by some networks in early days to
distinguish the technology from pre-cellular mobile telephones that
were built into automobiles and communicated with base stations with
much longer ranges than transponders on cell towers.

As an aside, the radiophone system aboard the Metroliner trains was a
pioneer application of celluar technology. Unlike prior mobile phone
systems, as the train travelled between radio zones, the conversation
was seamlessly switched to the next zone. There were multiple
channels, automatically selected and assigned. Passengers aboard the
train could dial direct outward. There were special cells within the
Baltimore tunnels because of poor radio transmission.

In the 1980s-1990s, some passenger lines put public pay cell phones
aboard their trains for passengers' convenience. But after a short
time a great many people had their own cell phones so the public units
were superflorous.

On Mar 30, 4:08*pm, "Adam H. Kerman" wrote:
were built into automobiles and communicated with base stations with
much longer ranges than transponders on cell towers.

P.S. In the US in the late 1940s, radio phones became available for
automobiles. They were also available on major trains.