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Technology Stocks : Leap Wireless International (LWIN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (2536)	10/21/2002 12:01:01 PM
From: RalphCramden	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2737

In San Diego, we have been paying "Zone 3" Local calling charges for making calls from landline to cell phone since ~1999. I thought it was all calls to cell phones that got zone 3'd, I did not have the impression that with a change in cell phone number I might have been able to get back into the unlimited local gig again. I try not to worry about $4/month effects (I admit it, I try not to worry about overspending my income every month by $1000s of dollars also...). Before 1999, my best sleuthing determined that cell phone numbers were "LM2" which were considered local throughout the entire San Diego LATA. When I first started getting charged from the home line, I called and they told me that this was history, and I think they told me ALL cell phone calls were now considered zone 3 local. My sister was getting the same charges on her local bill with a different cell provider, so I believed them and accepted it. PUSHES MIGRATION TO CELL-ONLY: This is just another small, but real reason to stop using the landline, ideally with the goal of getting rid of it at least for voice. I may switch off "unlimited local" for a few months to see if my bill changes up or down from paying the current "unlimited local" tab. A RADICAL "SOLUTION" FOR THE CELL COMPANIES: Why not offer as an option to the cell phone customer a "toll-free" number for your cell phone(s). Then if you wish to be callable by your family etc., you give them that toll-free number. The cell phone company would have control over who carried the call beyond local, because that is how it already works with toll-frees. The extra costs would be small, and obviously good be passed on to the cell phone customer in something like $1.99/month to have the toll-free number. This would be along the lines of offering unlimited long distance to a cell-phone customer for $10/month: you are encouraging him to get a more-minutes plan since the more minutes/month he uses, the further that $10 is going. Same with toll-free. To the moon, Ralph