Reserved phone numbers - go UK!

[ulmont]

it depends on where you register your phone and who is the provider.
You may buy your cell phone in a city and have it registered in another city if you want to.

... if you're a drug dealer.

I'm seeing it more often these days.  With free long distance on most cellphone plans, people just keep their old numbers as they change cities and states, so you'll see people in Atlanta with Ohio and DC numbers.

[derspiess]

Geographic cellphone codes? WTF is that?

They're not specific to cell phones, but we have area codes based (roughly) on geography.

And I'm still pissed they split 513 into 513 and 937.

We were a little uneasy being lumped in with you Daytonites.

[garbon]

Same way.

Yeah not sure what the problem is...

[Caliga]

One thing I love about the Yukon - although we do have to dial 7, or even 10 numbers (depending on whether it's long distance or not) most of the time you can get away with just quoting 4 digits as your number.  Outside of whitehorse every town had the same prefex (e.g. Watson Lake - 536), so residents can tell people "my number is 1234".

People do that in my town, since the entire town (county?) has just the prefix "477". 

[garbon]

I'm seeing it more often these days.  With free long distance on most cellphone plans, people just keep their old numbers as they change cities and states, so you'll see people in Atlanta with Ohio and DC numbers.

I'm on a plan with my family (save about 12 bucks a month and always free calls between us) and so I have a Massachusetts area code.

[Caliga]

My brother still has a '617' area code from when he was living in Boston.

[derspiess]

With Google Voice, you can choose your own area code & phone # from thousands that are available (I made the last three digits spell "EERS" ) and you can set that # to forward to any other #'s you want (e.g., you can set it to try your work phone, then cell phone, then home phone if no answer).  All you have to give people is that one Google Voice number.  It also has visual voicemail & some other cool stuff I haven't played with yet.

[derspiess]

free smartphone handset, all the 3G you can eat haven that is Europe.

Free? 

[Caliga]

My personal cell phone was like $10 or something and it's pretty nice.

[Grey Fox]

I hate the US Cellphone market.

/jealous

[DisturbedPervert]

My personal cell phone was like $10 or something and it's pretty nice.

Decent cell phones are only cheap in the US because they force you in to overpriced contracts

[derspiess]

My personal cell phone was like $10 or something and it's pretty nice.

Decent cell phones are only cheap in the US because they force you in to overpriced contracts

Yup.  Thankfully my company reimburses me for a good chunk of my bill each month.

[Caliga]

Princesca's bill gets reimbursed as well.  Mine doesn't, but that's because I have a separate blackberry on a different carrier thru work.  But yeah, the contract thing blows.  I used to have Virgin Mobile before I moved down here, and that's why--no contract.

[The Brain]

As a rule America is incredibly backwards when it comes to this stuff. Telephones, internet, credit card security etc etc etc.

As for phone bills of course I don't pay for either my phone or my calls. I work for a living.

[derspiess]

Okay, now you guys got me thinking about phones too much.  I'm eligible for subsidized pricing on a new phone, and I'm ready to ditch this generally reliable but boring Moto Q9c.  I'm really tempted to get a Palm Pre, but that tiny keyboard may be a deal-breaker.

My sensible, professional side (or what's left of it) says get the Blackberry Tour 9650 but it would feel too much like what I have now.

I should just hold off until Sprint's two Android phones come out in the next few weeks.  But what will I do for instant gratification?