How well do cell phones really work?

Don't know Android - I'm not a big fan. Love my BlackBerry Q10 - loved myBB Curve before that, and the 2 others before that. Before the "smart phones" I had several Nokias that worked well.and a Motorola that wasn't worth crap. They've all been on the Rogers (AT&T) network.

You'd be surprized how many cell phones you see in the bush in Africa

- where you could never get a land line.

Reply to
clare
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I do the same, but I have my own answering machine on the land line.

Reply to
clare

You might be surprised. Farmers use theirs quite a bit. They can order supplies, check the weather and markets etc.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

in low density areas, cellular is the cheaper infrastructure alternative.

Reply to
taxed and spent

The chief criterion was a phone with an FM radio in it. If that was android, so be it. It was some Huawei model.

Reply to
micky

But walking into light poles is an urban phenomenon. Farmers walk into trees.

Reply to
micky

Just well enough so you'll pay your monthly bill.

Remember, it's not about you the customer, it's about the stockholder. Shut up and pay your damn bill. ;-)

Reply to
W2 Wage Slave

Not likely in my part of the U.S. They might drive their tractors into something if they're busy yapping or playing games on the cellular device if the auto steering fails or they fall asleep. The GPS on row crop tractors is accurate to within one inch. A bit here from John Deere.

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Reply to
Dean Hoffman

In the US, the phone system was built bit by bit over decades. China gave phone service to millions in a couple of years with cell towers.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Why do the tractors need a driver? One of the more boring things I've ever done was drive a tractor. Of course it was an elderly Minneapolis Moline without air conditioning and the entertainment center the new ones have.

Reply to
rbowman

I remember a photo from years ago, maybe in Wired magazine. It was laying fiber optic in China. There was a line of workers as far as you could see with the fiber optic cable on their shoulders. None of those fancy spool trucks and power ditchers for those guys.

Reply to
rbowman

Farmers say the GPS sometimes fails when they get over a certain hill or to a certain spot in their fields. They have to turn the tractors around at the ends of the fields and operate the equipment when they do. Someone has to keep an eye on the planter or fertilizer monitors also. Then there's refilling the sprayer tanks, the planters with seed etc. at planting time. I've meant to ask someone if the tractors have dead man's switches but haven't thought about it at the right time. It's been maybe a dozen years or so since I've even climbed into a tractor. The familiar levers for the hydraulics had been replaced by rocker switches even then. There's one nearby farmer who still uses a Minnie tractor. A few of the irrigation wells are still powered by Minnie power units. Those things must be close to fifty years old.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

| > I think that people living on their phones is mainly | > an urban phenomenon. | > | > | You might be surprised. Farmers use theirs quite a bit. | They can order supplies, check the weather and markets etc.

IF they can get a signal. As I pointed out, many can't get a signal at their home.

Actually, though, you raise an interesting point. I've noticed that cellphone addicts often don't really seem to notice how bad the service is. It's often difficult to understand what they're saying due to gaps or static. One would think that at home they'd use the superior technology of a landline phone, rather than subject friends and family to

1950s-quality phone communication. But they seem to just be out of the habit of using regular phones.

Lase week I was on the Boston subway when a young man approached and asked to borrow my cellphone. He was very anxious. His iPhone battery had died and he needed to call his father to get picked up at the station. I told him sorry, but I don't use a cellphone. He repeated his story and then slowly wandered away. He seemed to think I was suspicious of him, never considering that maybe I meant exactly what I said -- that I didn't have a cellphone.

I thought of offering the young man that I could call his father as soon as I walked home from the station, but I decided that by that point he probably thought I was unfriendly at best and an anti-social weirdo without a cellphone at worst, so maybe it was best to leave him to his own devices.... or lack thereof. :)

Reply to
Mayayana

Just one of many communication problems happening every day all over the world. Some times people even die because of this...

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Must be. White bought them in the '60s and dropped the brand name in the early '70s. M-M had the first enclosed cab in the business on the DeLuxe model, but the one I spent time on wasn't deluxe in any way, shape, or form.

Reply to
rbowman

Yes sir.

Reply to
micky

I just called his father. He's home already and that's exactly what he thought of you. He said he saw you looking at him atterwards and he reached for the knife in his pocket, to have it in his hand, in his pocket, just in case.

Reply to
micky

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