Cellphone Carriers Are Turning to Wi-Fi, Too
By DAMON DARLIN September 11, 2010
THE definition of a nerd, it has been said, is someone who has more e-mail addresses than pants.
I have three addresses and three pairs of pants, so I guess I am borderline, using that criterion.
But what does it mean that I have seven phone numbers? There is my home landline, my office landline, my cellphone, a Google Voice phone number and three other Internet-connected phone numbers.
That's 70 digits to manage - yet I rarely talk on the phone and always try to avoid answering one.
I may well be a nerd, but there is a reason for all those numbers. Like a lot of other people, I've been searching for new ways to communicate as the phone system that has served us well for more than
130 years morphs into another, still uncertain form.Fewer people have landlines. A quarter of American homes use only cellphones. We are talking less and texting more. And as we use more data on cellphones that are really hand-held computers, we must search for alternative networks, usually Wi-Fi, to bypass a strained cellphone network.
All of those phone numbers, then, are the residue of my experiments to find a system to not only stay in touch, but also to find one, or two, reliable ways that people can use to contact me. The multiple numbers parallel the numerous text- and instant-messaging systems I use, like Google Chat, Twitter, Facebook and AIM.
It's not just consumers who are using the phone system differently. The phone companies are way ahead of us - and couldn't be happier that consumers are shifting to texting. The economics are clearly in the companies' favor. The cellphone carriers rival Vitamin Water or Hewlett-Packard and its printer ink cartridges in their ability to extract a high-profit margin from a seemingly mundane product.
Text messages take up very little space - about 140 bytes, as they are being transmitted. That's really why text messages are kept short. How much are we really paying for them? As much as $1,498 per megabyte. Here's some of the math:
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And I thought that communicating by radio, using a written language, was passé: now, I'm thinking I should dust off my Vibroplex and crank up my Johnson Viking Ranger again. Funny how everything comes back if you wait long engouh.
Oh, by the way: when I use a Vibroplex, all I pay for is the electricity to turn on the Ranger and my HQ-170-AC. Eat your hearts out!
Bill Horne Moderator