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	mary_mac 2007-12-28 06:31 pm UTC (link)
	This explains quite a lot about the way my friends from the US used their phones in the UK... And I thought that Vodafone's wanky behaviour over cross-border/European roaming was bad. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hallidae 2007-12-29 02:05 pm UTC (link)
	To give you another idea of their stupidity, I have to pay more to make a daytime call to somewhere in the city I currently live in than I do to make a call home (six counties and a couple hundred miles away), because AT&T are being assholes and won't let me change my number's area code to the local one. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mary_mac 2007-12-30 03:31 pm UTC (link)
	You have area codes for mobile phones? Doesn't that, like, completely defeat the purpose? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

hallidae
2007-12-30 03:42 pm UTC (link)

My family, and my cell-phone, are registered in area code 865. I'm currently living in area code 423, which is in the same stupid region of the state. It's just another way the companies can nail you with roaming charges and higher fees, and they re-use numbers by just assigning them different area codes (which is why I'm getting harassed by someone in area code 424, all the way in goddamn California, who thinks I'm her husband's bit on the side).

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	mary_mac 2007-12-30 03:47 pm UTC (link)
	Oh wow. I have my number, which works all over the UK sans funny business and everywhere else with the appropriate international code. Ye gods. Area codes. Insane. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rachel_pi 2008-01-05 07:25 pm UTC (link)
	Yep! I didn't realize that you didn't have to pay to receive calls for a couple months, but it was a very exciting discovery. :) I was also excited to learn that texting was actually cheaper. We had to get a special texting package at home, because it wasn't included in regular cellphone minutes. Also, I hate US mobile companies. Just want to add that. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mary_mac 2008-01-05 07:33 pm UTC (link)
	boggled I'd say I'll never complain about Vodafone again, only that would be a lie. Still. Wow. (I do, however, believe that if you can't make your network coverage contiguous with the border, then you shouldn't damn well charge me roaming for being on the side I'm supposed to be on. I think that's called fraud.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

rachel_pi
2008-01-05 07:45 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, the US cellphone market is due for an overhaul, I think. I also need to find a place in London or Cambridge to get my US cellphone unlocked. It'll work in Europe, but of course AT&T can't unlock it for me.

I've actually not thought about it all that much, but in England, cell phones all have the same initial digits, don't they? I wish the US could do something like that, like make one area code for cellphones.

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	mary_mac 2008-01-05 07:56 pm UTC (link)
	Any of the non-network mobile phone shops will unlock it for you. Not so sure about the network ones though. Or a sufficiently geeky friend. All UK mobiles are 077 or 078 depending on how old your SIM/network is. Mine's knocking on for ten year old, its 077, my friend's is new and is 078. Landline and mobile numbering are entirely separate here, though. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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