Friday 31st July 2009 – Time for Me to Go

Did you know there are two payment models in the mobile/cell phone market?  One is called 'Mobile Party Pays' (MPP) and the other 'Calling Party Pays' (CPP).  CPP is how land lines work: there is no charge to receive a call.  It is also how mobile phones work in Europe.  But, since there are a number of networks, the calling network has to pay the receiving network to complete the call.  So calls appear more expensive.

The US uses MPP, so you have to pay to receive a call.  This has been infuriating me since I got here.  How can you control your costs when someone else calling you can empty your account?

Now I'm beginning to understand.  In Europe there are lots of pre-paid phones which cost nothing to receive calls ("I'm on my mobile, call me back").  In the US there are lots of contract cell phones with huge bundles of 'free' minutes, and lots of 'no charge' hours in the day and week.

Here in Glasgow MO, I get almost no signal at all (my phone is not locked, and can see any network on all four frequencies for GSM phones.  I can't use them all, of course, but I could see them if they were there).  Every so often, in odd places, in odd weather conditions and times of day, I suddenly get to see a network (not my own) that I'm permitted to use (they call it 'roaming', where my network will pay them for my use).  Unfortunately, the signal only appears momentarily, so I get notified I've had voice messages, then I can't pick them up.  For reasons I can't quite fathom, but are probably to do with data integrity, when the signal is very weak, the roaming network can't recognise that I'm calling to pick up messages, rather than to leave one.

I decided to go for a drive in the country, to see if I could locate where the mast was.  Dulcie was quite helpful.  Although she wouldn't actually define the gravel roads, she was prepared to show them to me. 

She even showed me one with locks on it.  I got to a t-junction at what looked like it must be a flood levee, and both forks had a locked gate on them.  It was clear four-wheel drives had simply gone round the gates, but I wasn't four-wheel drive. 

So it was back to the main road.  Eventually I found the mast, about ten miles north, next to a Lutheran Church.  (I wonder if that's significant?  Are Lutherans allowed to make and receive phone calls while they're in church?  Sunday is one of the big 'free' periods in MPP charging.)

 

Do you see the ads down the side?  They're supposed to be tailored to both the subject matter and the reader's location.  I saw one today (here, on this page!) offering to put me in touch with single Missourian ladies.  The cheek: as if I needed such help!  But the ad said "No credit cards necessary".  Now, do you believe that? Do you believe any self-respecting lady would have anything to do with someone who didn't have a credit card?  I don't.

 

People are beginning to ask me when I'm leaving.  "There can't be that much interesting here", they say.  Perhaps they're getting fed up with being observed.  I tell them it's a kind of wanderlust, that I know it's time to go when my feet start to itch. 

I think being asked when I'm leaving, and where I'm going next may be what makes my feet itch.  Anyway, my feet are beginning to itch.