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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5S3e5St_5Y
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Feb 25, 2016 20:29
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| # ? May 13, 2024 23:36 |
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Howard Beale posted:Just dial down the middle: 800 C-A-L-L A-T-T! Cheaper than 1-800-COLLECT!
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Feb 25, 2016 20:33
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stubblyhead posted:Cheaper than 1-800-COLLECT! https://youtu.be/8k1UOEYIQRo
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Feb 25, 2016 20:44
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Data Graham posted:Just dial 10-10-220 Wow, I forgot all about that. I actually used that back in the day.
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Feb 25, 2016 21:03
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Some commercial breaks there would be like two or three of those goddamn things. I knew deep down that someday the economics of it would work out such that it was no longer profitable to make those ridiculous ads for those prefix services that would change every two months and people would scurry back and forth chasing another 20 cents per minute of savings on their long distance land-line calling, but for the longest time it was hard to hold on to that faith
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Feb 25, 2016 21:49
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God, this discussion reminds me of Don Adams as the spokesperson for Buck-a-Call. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUXeyT1MrHw
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Feb 25, 2016 21:51
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It's just crazy that now all my friends have different area codes and it doesn't even matter.
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Feb 25, 2016 21:53
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:God, this discussion reminds me of Don Adams as the spokesperson for Buck-a-Call. Is that the heavens gate guy
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Feb 26, 2016 00:45
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Quantum of Phallus posted:Is that the heavens gate guy That's Don Adams: comedian and star of Get Smart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGA7eyWeAA
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Feb 26, 2016 01:06
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Data Graham posted:Just dial 10-10-220 Cojawfee posted:Oh jeez, these 10-10 numbers. John Lithgow's 10-10-321 commercials. I always wondered if the IT people at those companies set up their internal office networks to use the 10.10.220.xxx or 10.10.321.xxx IP ranges. I hope so.
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Feb 26, 2016 01:16
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Powered Descent posted:I always wondered if the IT people at those companies set up their internal office networks to use the 10.10.220.xxx or 10.10.321.xxx IP ranges. I hope so. Not 10.10.321.xxx for sure.
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Feb 26, 2016 01:32
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dial *69 for the number, date, and time lol
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Feb 26, 2016 01:56
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The_Franz posted:That's Don Adams: comedian and star of Get Smart: Also the voice of Inspector Gadget.
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Feb 26, 2016 01:58
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The Bible posted:Not 10.10.321.xxx for sure. Good point. 
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Feb 26, 2016 01:59
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I was needing a pre-paid phone card for long distance calling a while back and was really surprised not only by how hard it was to find one, how few there were and the prices of them seemed odd. I know one time I was out of town, no cell phone, and really needed to make a call home and I very nearly just bought a cheap Tracfone because it was going to end up costing me nearly the same as finding a prepaid card, finding a still-working phone booth, losing a LOT of minutes just for the service fee of using a pay phone, etc. edit: I actually was cleaning out an drawer recently and found a promotional phone card from the ET rerelease from about 15 years ago. Yeah, those minutes are expired.
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Feb 26, 2016 07:21
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stubblyhead posted:Cheaper than 1-800-COLLECT! This is jibber-jabber.
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Feb 26, 2016 08:38
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I've heard in other threads and from some friends in the US about how the mobile system works a little but I'm confused on a few aspects. If someone calls YOU, do YOU get charged minutes too? Do mobile phones have the same prefix country wide? Is there nationwide flatrate mobile to moblie call rates or is it a local/long distance type arrangement too?
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Feb 26, 2016 08:39
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Humphreys posted:I've heard in other threads and from some friends in the US about how the mobile system works a little but I'm confused on a few aspects. Any US cell phone can call any other US cell phone with no long distance charges. Within the US, a phone number is 1 (country code) - 512 (3-digit area code, in my case, Austin, TX) - *** - **** (your phone number). Back in the old days, any number with the same 512 area code was considered local and would not be charged extra. If I wanted to call another city, say San Antonio (210) or San Francisco (415), I would dial 1 - (210 or 415) - *** - ****, and would be charged long distance fees. Nowadays, dialing such numbers is still exactly the same, except it doesn't cost anything because with cell phones it just doesn't. Despite US companies charging way too much for cell phone service compared to Europe and other countries, that is one really nice thing. The notion of "long distance" just doesn't exist anymore. This really bugged me when I was living in Europe. I had a Belgian cell phone number which meant that only calls within Belgium were considered local and not charged extra. If I wanted to call a French or Dutch or German number, it was long distance, despite them being right loving on my goddamn border. I could get from Brussels to Paris quicker than I could Austin to Dallas and yet that's an international call and is stupid expensive. It's the loving European Union. Why do y'all still have long distance charges?
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Feb 26, 2016 10:21
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Humphreys posted:I've heard in other threads and from some friends in the US about how the mobile system works a little but I'm confused on a few aspects. Yes, if someone has a plan without unlimited voice, incoming calls do count against their minutes. I think Sprint and possibly other providers in the past had optional plans that included free incoming calls, but that's not the norm. Almost all new plans these days have unlimited voice. Mobile and landline numbers are indistinguishable. For a little over a decade, we've had number portability, which lets us keep our same phone number when we transfer service regardless of whether the new service is landline, mobile, or voip. Extra fees for national long distance are sometimes still a thing on landlines, but I don't think any mobile or voip providers charge extra for it.
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Feb 26, 2016 10:23
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Thanks for the replies, it did clear some stuff up. Here in Australia you can have a prepaid phone with no credit on it and have it as a 'receive calls only' type thing - good for contacting your I'm in my 30s and still have a prepaid account for the flexibility and we get some OK rates. $30 a month gives me more call and data than I use and I can also send credit to other numbers if I have excess at the end of the month (I send all left over credit to my grandma so she doesn't have to spend more of her lovely pension on being contactable).
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Feb 26, 2016 10:38
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The most insane part of landlines that I remember is that if you dialed the full number for someone who was local, instead of the call being put through you'd hear an automated message saying that your call couldn't be completed because you'd dialed the area code for a local number. It took multiple attempts dialing in different ways because "we know who you were trying to call but gently caress you."
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Feb 26, 2016 10:49
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Jesus Christ posted:Any US cell phone can call any other US cell phone with no long distance charges. Within the US, a phone number is 1 (country code) - 512 (3-digit area code, in my case, Austin, TX) - *** - **** (your phone number). Because European Union doesn't mean Union like the United States? There is recent EU legislation to cut down on roaming charges within the EU, at least.
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Feb 26, 2016 11:39
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Humphreys posted:Couple that with payphones that allow you to dial any number without inserting coins for those 'call me back' situations. Are you saying that if you don't insert coins, it'll still ring on the other end and you can hang up after 2 rings so they know "oh that's Humphreys's secret code, I'd better ca'll back", or can you talk for a few seconds before you need to insert coins? A FUCKIN CANARY!! posted:The most insane part of landlines that I remember is that if you dialed the full number for someone who was local, instead of the call being put through you'd hear an automated message saying that your call couldn't be completed because you'd dialed the area code for a local number. It took multiple attempts dialing in different ways because "we know who you were trying to call but gently caress you." Seems fair to me. The exchange probably wasn't that smart, and as soon as you dialled 1, your line was connected to the long distance switch, and then if you dialled your own area code, there probably wasn't some way to disconnect your line from the long distance switch but tell the local switch to connect you to your destination, so you're probably lucky they were smart enough to say "no" instead of connecting you and charging you long distance rates, because if you're tying up a port on the long distance switch you should be charged accordingly. I could be wrong though, I just read Exploding the Phone a while ago and have no other basis for guessing how this stuff works 
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Feb 26, 2016 12:13
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Jesus Christ posted:Back in the old days, any number with the same 512 area code was considered local and would not be charged extra. If I wanted to call another city, say San Antonio (210) or San Francisco (415), I would dial 1 - (210 or 415) - *** - ****, and would be charged long distance fees. And in more spread-out areas, long-distance fees could still apply even within the area code. I learned this when I spent the summer after my sophomore year at my mom's house, and racked up several hundred dollars in phone bills dialing in to my college's modem pool twenty miles away. "But I didn't have to dial an area code" was a flimsy excuse but understandable given the circumstances, and my summer job pretty much paid off the phone bill.
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Feb 26, 2016 12:19
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Buttcoin purse posted:Are you saying that if you don't insert coins, it'll still ring on the other end and you can hang up after 2 rings so they know "oh that's Humphreys's secret code, I'd better ca'll back", or can you talk for a few seconds before you need to insert coins? If you were quick you could get 'mum pick me up' out before it disconnected.
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Feb 26, 2016 12:29
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Humphreys posted:If you were quick you could get 'mum pick me up' out before it disconnected. "Hello. You have a collect call from--PRACTICEISOVERCOMEPICKMEUP--press 1 to accept the charges"
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Feb 26, 2016 12:32
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feedmegin posted:Because European Union doesn't mean Union like the United States? oh so big companies can trade freely but the average citizen is hosed? seems like the oligarchy is alive and well there as well
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Feb 26, 2016 12:35
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JediTalentAgent posted:I was needing a pre-paid phone card for long distance calling a while back and was really surprised not only by how hard it was to find one, how few there were and the prices of them seemed odd. you need to go to where immigrants live to get those cards now. mexican supermercados, inner city bodegas, etc have those cards because calling their families is cheaper than with a cell phone
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Feb 26, 2016 12:38
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Howard Beale posted:"Hello. You have a collect call from--PRACTICEISOVERCOMEPICKMEUP--press 1 to accept the charges" You have a call from Bob WEADDABABYEETSABOY
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Feb 26, 2016 12:49
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Tmobile owns if you have lots of family/friends in central or south america and a bunch of other places around the world actually but live in the US. On my plan i can use 3g data and text for free when i travel to most countries. Voice is pretty cheap by the minute but would add up just use WhatsApp or facetime audio instead.
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Feb 26, 2016 14:00
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All this fancy shmancy VoIP and globally accessible packet-switched network bullshit is cool and all but I'll be damned if POTS isn't still in use 50 or more years from now.
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Feb 26, 2016 14:34
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Humphreys posted:I've heard in other threads and from some friends in the US about how the mobile system works a little but I'm confused on a few aspects. No one has a landline these days unless you're really old or if your cable company makes you get one as part of a bundle. Pretty much every single mobile phone plan has unlimited talk/text these days so you don't need to worry about minutes. And yeah everything is (+1). They're assigned on a country to country basis regardless of population IIRC. Like China I know is (+86) but they have like 12 digit phone numbers because of how many people there are.
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Feb 26, 2016 14:35
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Promoting the installation and use of Windows 95 with characters from hit 90's TV show Friends(tm)
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Feb 26, 2016 14:46
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I've had unlimited talk, text and data for a long time - I haven't thought about "minutes" in years. At one point it there was just a single pool of minutes for incoming and outgoing calls, then later it only applied to outgoing calls. My first cell phone was per minute for voice, texts didn't exist, and data didn't mean anything either. For data/text purposes I would just log on to AOL, at a per minute or per hour rate. I don't remember the pricing at the time but I bet my parents do.
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Feb 26, 2016 14:55
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:While we're on the subject of cell phones, tell me if I'm crazy, goons... It seems like way too often, if I'm listening to a phone interview on the radio, or just if I'm talking to someone, if at any point one of the people using a cell phone either yells a certain way or makes a long sound, almost like singing a musical note, I've noticed that a number tone is triggered. Has anyone else noticed this? I don't have an answer for you, but I've experienced it when I call my mother's landline from Skype and one of us raises their voice.
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Feb 26, 2016 15:04
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computer parts posted:No one has a landline these days unless you're really old or if your cable company makes you get one as part of a bundle. I think by prefix he means the 3 digits after +1, not the international prefix. Also population doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how long numbers are; British phone numbers are 11 digits (the first of which is always 0, granted), and we're like 1/6th the population of the US. Landline numbers have geographical area codes but mobile phone numbers don't - they all start with 07<something> and aren't tied to any particular location.
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Feb 26, 2016 15:06
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IIRC, cellphone roaming charges in the EU will be capped at some low rate this year and completely abolished next year. I wouldn't be surprised if that schedule is mysteriously delayed, of course.
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Feb 26, 2016 15:13
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Data Graham posted:You have a call from Bob WEADDABABYEETSABOY Another commercial that makes no sense anymore. Also why were you people dialing 1? The only time I ever used 1 was when I called 800 numbers because there was a 1 listed in the commercial.
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Feb 26, 2016 15:17
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Christo3 posted:Promoting the installation and use of Windows 95 with characters from hit 90's TV show Friends(tm) I'd watch that just for kicks
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Feb 26, 2016 15:19
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| # ? May 13, 2024 23:36 |
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It's on YouTube.
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Feb 26, 2016 15:23
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