Thank you.
Thank you.
The dial of Puerto Rico's right to independence and self-determination continues.
Condemning the colonial occupation of the U.S. in Puerto Rico is the solemn duty of all who desire and fight for freedom.
Protests and rally Friday, July 25th, 4.30 p.m. at the U.S. Department of Puerto Rican Affairs, 34th Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan.
For more information, call Comité Puerto Rico 98 at 212-927-9065.
That's 212-927-9065.
U.S. out of Puerto Rico.
Que viva Puerto Rico libre.
And while we try to figure out the strange noises around here, this is WBAI in New York.
Time now for Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing So I ripped it off the wall
I cut myself while shaving Now I can't make a call
It could be yet much worse But if they could, they would
Bum-de-li-bom for the best expect from us I hope that understood
Bum-de-li-bom!
Bye for now Bye for now
Bye for now
Bye for now
I don't know.
I don't know what these weird noises are going over the air, but we've been getting them here at the station all day long.
If anyone out there knows what this means, please tell us, because it's weird.
It's kind of scary, too.
I don't really know what's happening.
But it's irrelevant to this, because we're here to talk about telecommunications and the future and things like that.
It sounds kind of primitive to me, right?
Yeah.
All right.
It's off the hook.
Yes, off the hook.
And we're here tonight to talk about the future Beyond Hope conference.
We have Pam and David.
Well, Pam doesn't seem to be here, but she's supposed to be here.
So we'll wait a little while until she arrives, which should be hopefully in a couple of moments.
And I guess what I can do in the meantime, in the interim, is welcome Fiber Optic to the studio.
How are you doing, Fiber?
Greetings.
What's up there?
The headphones don't work.
The headphones don't work?
None of them.
Well, you know, some chowderheads were in here before with playing with the headphones, and I think they might have turned them all off.
So I don't know what's going on.
Oh, wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
I'm going to press this little button here.
Tell me if they work now.
Yeah.
Do they?
Say something.
Something.
I don't know.
Can you hear me at all?
Oh, there we go.
Ah, see?
Ah, yeah.
Isn't it nice to have the power of God?
Yeah.
Where you can just press a button and fix things.
I wish I could press a button and get rid of this noise.
Well, anyway.
Yeah, so you know what I did this week?
I think you know what I did this week.
You, uh, I think you ought to tell them what you did this week.
Okay, you want me to tell them?
Oh, Pam's here.
Hi, Pam.
Hello.
How you doing?
Okay, um, well, I went out and I got myself one of those things that you have.
Right.
Yeah.
And it's kind of cool because, uh, I didn't have one before.
And now I do.
And now that I do, it's, it's changed my life in ways you just could not imagine.
Really, I, I, I kid you not.
I went out for the first time and got myself a, uh, a, well, is it really a cellular phone?
No, it's not technically cellular.
Yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's...
A GSM phone.
A GSM phone.
It's, it's like a cellular phone.
Uh, it's, it's supposed to be better.
And, you know, it, it really is a cool phone.
And these things are, are on sale for, I think, a quarter of what they were on sale for a couple of months ago,
which naturally has a lot of people, uh, rather angry because they went out and paid a lot of money for these things and now they're cheap.
But the phones themselves are really pretty cool.
Uh, you can, you can do all kinds of, of neat things.
You can, uh, for instance, change, whoa, what, what, what shall I change?
I'll change my settings.
I can change the type of, uh, of ring I have.
Yeah, I can have that.
I can have that stupidity.
I don't know who would want to walk around having a phone ring like this.
I do.
Well, you do have a phone that rings like that.
I mean, Beethoven's Ninth?
Come on, this is silly.
It's a phone, for God's sake.
All right, got that.
They have so many of these selections.
I don't know how they pick these things.
They have to have to pay copyright royalties every time they, uh, what was that one?
That was kind of a weird one.
Uh, okay.
That's your standard telephone ringing.
Right.
This is the one I select.
Sounds nice in business.
Sounds like a cricket.
Yeah.
But you can also do that one.
And, uh, some people like the mix.
Yeah.
But I'm going to go back to my, my regular business one and select that and be done with
it.
So, yeah, you can have hours of fun just, just playing around with these things.
Uh, you, you also, you, you know, you get, uh, all kinds of little features like the New
York Times headlines, you know.
Stock quotes.
Butting their way into your life and, uh, yeah, stock quotes.
You can get stock quotes.
On demand.
Okay, let's demand a stock quote.
Let's do it.
Um, what do I do for that?
You, you want to go to the mail menu and compose a new message.
Okay, so, uh, I go to the mail menu.
I realize this is a lot of fun for those people on the radio who have no idea what I'm doing
right now.
But I'm going to the mail menu and it says mail.
I'm going to hit yes.
Going to mailbox?
No.
No.
You want to go to send message.
Read messages, card messages, send messages.
There you go.
Send messages.
Okay.
New.
Yes.
Okay.
And now what do I do?
Now you're going to compose the message.
Okay.
What company do you want to look up?
Uh, IBM.
IBM.
Yes.
Then type in IBM.
Okay.
And I, I, I'm going to hit a four and a G shows.
Oh, I'm going to hit four.
Nope.
Wait.
Now you've got to backspace.
I've got to backspace.
How do I backspace?
Clear.
Clear.
Okay.
Got it.
So I, I have to hit four twice very fast for it to be an I.
Or three times actually.
Three times to get an I.
One, two, three.
Okay.
I got an I there.
Now pause.
Now I'm going to pause and hit two twice.
And then I'm going to hit six once.
Okay.
Then what?
Now you want to hit yes?
All right.
I typed IBM.
I'm hitting yes.
Request reply.
Yes.
Yes or no?
Yes.
Send message.
Enter number.
Okay.
Now enter four, four, four.
Four, four, four.
And then hit yes to send it.
Hit yes to send it.
Sending message.
Please wait.
Message sent.
There you go.
All right.
Now within a few moments, we should have the results.
Okay.
I'm very curious as to what IBM did on the stock market today.
And I'll be able to follow.
Oh, look at this.
I've got a reply already.
New 22 July 97 from four, four, four.
Who's four, four, four?
That's the stock quote number.
Okay.
IBM 103.00 minus 0.75 B colon 103.00.
That's bid.
A colon 103.19.
That's ask.
L colon 99.38.
That's lowest.
Low, yeah.
And the highest is 103.50.
Volume.
I got all these phrases down.
Nine million, one hundred, ninety-four thousand, four.
Quatloos?
Four hundred.
Erase.
Yes.
Okay.
I've erased it.
There.
That's how easy that is.
So, yeah.
I am very happy with the phone itself and, you know, playing around with it and seeing all
different features and things like that.
But I got to tell you, I got to tell you, the people, the people that are doing this kind
of thing, namely Omnipoint, I'm not very happy with them.
Let me tell you why.
Anyway, I had quite an experience, quite a nightmare, I'd say, getting this thing started.
I went to the Wiz to buy the phone.
And, you know, I don't often say this, but the Wiz, I think, really did a very good job
here.
I don't often say that about the Wiz.
All they do is sell you the phone.
Yeah, but you don't believe how hard it can be to do something simple like that.
You know, the lines they make you wait in, the stupidity you have to go through.
This particular case, you know, I was actually on my way over here last week.
It was 20 minutes to eight.
I wanted to buy a phone just right then and there.
And I did, you know, and the guy helped me through very quickly and it was a pleasant
experience.
No problem whatsoever.
And everything the person said was true, you know.
Right.
As far as how the phone worked and what I had to do to get it turned on and things like
that.
Didn't give me any nonsense.
Okay.
So, later on that night, I turned the phone on and, okay, this is something.
I'm going to demonstrate this right now because this is part of the problem right here.
All right.
I thought it was a temporary thing, but apparently it's not a temporary thing.
Apparently our phone lines don't work either.
Hold on.
Okay.
Here we go.
Now.
Actually, wait a minute.
How do I do this?
How do I call them on the air?
Just call customer service directly.
Yeah, I know, but I don't know what their number is.
I dial star 611 or 611 on this phone.
The 888 number.
I don't know what the 888 number is.
It's Omni 611.
Okay.
That's the same number.
Same exact thing as dialing 611 on the phone.
Okay.
Hold on.
Got to get that dial tone back.
I don't know if this is.
Okay.
No, you see, the 9 wasn't working, so I didn't get out.
Ah.
Let's try that one more time.
Okay.
I think I got it that time.
Omni what?
666-4611.
666-4611.
Omni 611.
461.
Okay.
Now listen to this.
Welcome to OmniPoint.
We are currently experiencing unusually high call volumes.
If you are going to activate your phone, you may choose to use the fax in activation form found in the box in which your phone came in.
You may fax this form to the following number.
1-888-624-5171.
Now, that little bit about excessively long call volume and that kind of thing happens no matter when you call.
All right.
So what we're going to do is we're just going to stay on.
Please stay on the line, and a customer care representative will be happy to assist you.
We'll see how long it takes to get a human.
Please look to the following five options.
Now, we're not going to enter any options.
We're just going to try and be a regular person.
You just hit zero to skip over.
Please press 2.
If you would like to make a payment to your account.
What if I don't have a touch on phone?
Make your account balance or request a bill copy.
Please press 3.
If you are calling for the status of your product shipment, product return, or to report a lost or stolen phone.
Please press 4.
If you are in need of technical assistance.
Please press 5.
If you are not a current customer of Omnipoint and would like general information.
Okay, now we get to it.
For all other inquiries, please press zero.
Thank you.
Okay, we're not going to press anything.
We don't have a touch on phone, and we're just going to sit here like a normal person and wait for the...
Thank you.
Yeah.
A customer care representative will be happy to assist you.
Okay, except they probably haven't been born yet.
I'd better not get a customer service representative this quickly.
If I do, I'm certain they're listening.
Thank you for calling Omnipoint.
Currently, all customer care representatives are assisting other customers.
Please stay on the line, and the next available customer care representative will assist you shortly.
Okay, we're up to the music now?
Okay, we got the music.
Excellent.
Now, okay, this is where the adventure started.
45 minutes after I made my first call, and this...
Actually, I'd made about six attempts before this, and I'd given up after like 10 minutes each time.
But finally, I was determined to get on, and it took about 45 minutes.
And I spoke to somebody who signed me up.
Now, this is the first thing that got me angry.
They insisted that I had to give them my social security number.
There was like no way I could get a phone unless I gave them a social security number
or was a prepaid customer and pay exorbitant rates.
That is an out-and-out lie, first of all.
You do not have to give any phone company your social security number,
including 9X, MCI, AT&T, or Omnipoint.
I gave them a fake number.
I suggest everybody who works with any phone company do the same thing.
It's only for accounting purposes.
You just have to keep track of it, obviously.
They run a credit check on you if you give them a credit card number.
They were able to do that in just about 30 seconds, which I thought was kind of cool.
Then they gave me my phone number,
except the funny thing about it was the phone number was in the 516 area code.
They don't even serve the 516 area code, which is...
Small part of it.
They serve about three houses in there, yes.
But, you know, I won't be able to use the 516 features.
Anybody there?
Nobody's there.
Okay.
I won't be able to use the phone in 516 unless I'm right near Queens.
So that was kind of silly.
They sort of assumed that I wanted 516 because that's the billing address I gave them.
So I had to get all that changed.
They were pretty upset by that because they had to, like, enter everything all over again.
So then they gave me a 917 number.
Although, you know, I asked them for about, I think, about 15 different numbers or combinations of numbers.
Everything was taken or unavailable.
The entire 770 exchange, which is what most people have on OmniPoint, totally filled up, they say.
So you can't get any numbers there anymore.
And virtually everything that spells out, you know, cool words and obscenities and things like that, they're all taken as well.
So I had to settle for this lowly number in, I think it was the 774 exchange.
Yeah, that's it.
So, okay, so I got that number.
It wasn't a number I wanted, but it was a number, and it worked, and it was okay, I guess.
So I was satisfied at that point, even though it had taken a very long time.
My ear was burning.
You know, you hold these things up to your ear long enough.
Does your ear burn when you use these things?
If you're on the phone for an hour, the thing can tend to get a little hot.
Well, if you call them, you're going to be on the phone for an hour because they keep you on hold that long.
And so, yeah, I'm sort of worried about, you know, what kinds of things are going on when I'm talking, what kinds of things are going on when I'm not talking.
You know, I think these are valid concerns that people should have the answers to, and I'm not used to carrying transmission devices on my person.
So anyway, I'm having lots of fun with this phone.
It's, you know, it's ringing occasionally.
I'm calling people occasionally.
Still not entirely sure how much I'm paying for this thing because, you know, they give you a certain type of plan,
but you don't know how much it costs per minute.
They have different special summer plans and things like that.
So everyone seems a little confused as to how exactly it works.
I guess that's, you know, that's okay being a new technology and all, but I really would like to know, you know, how much I'm paying for a certain service.
You pay for incoming calls.
You pay for outgoing calls.
You're paying all the time.
I hope you're not paying when you call them because that's where most of my talk time has been recently.
No, you're definitely not.
Okay.
If you call that 800 number, though, or 888 number, you would be.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, so you have to call them.
Well, you should only ever call 611.
Yeah, 611 on OmniPoint phone.
So anyway, so I'm happy with this new phone, telling everybody my number, you know, going all over the place,
boasting about how I now have a GSM phone.
And I think it was you I was talking to at the time.
I was complaining that people were trying to reach me and getting some bizarre recording.
Not even my voicemail.
They were getting, you know, a recording saying, enter your 10-digit number.
Right.
Right.
And I called you, and you said, well, that's not the number that you're calling me from.
And I said, what?
What do you mean that's not the number I'm calling you from?
You then told me the number, or I called you back or something, because caller ID is like, you know, something that comes with these things.
Yeah.
And it was a totally different number, totally different exchange, totally different number.
And I could not believe this.
My number had suddenly changed on its own.
It was very, very bizarre.
So, of course, I had to call OmniPoint all over again, wait on hold about a half hour this time, get another person.
And I asked them, what happened to my phone number?
And they looked through all their records, and they said, well, we don't know what happened to your phone number,
but we do know that somebody sent you a message explaining why they were sending, why they were changing your phone number.
And I said, okay, I never got that message.
Could it be that they maybe sent it to the wrong number, and I never got it?
They said they didn't know.
They couldn't tell me.
I asked them, well, who sent the message?
They said, well, we don't know that either.
We can't tell you that.
I said, fine, whatever.
Can you just give me my number back?
The person said, well, the way it works here, sir, is that when a number is deactivated, it remains unusable for 30 days.
So you would have to wait 30 days to get that number back.
Please remain on the line.
We apologize for the delay.
A customer care representative will be available to assist you momentarily.
Thank you.
How is the word momentarily defined in Webster's?
It seems to be minutarily.
Within a few moments.
Momentarily means seconds is the way I think it is.
Anyway, so this is where I start to get a little perturbed.
This person is now saying, what, they can't override whatever it is that happened?
They can't even tell me why my number was taken away from me?
I told the person, I gave this number out to so many people.
What am I supposed to do now?
And how do I know if I give it out again that it's not going to be changed for no particular reason?
They literally could not understand why I was upset.
They really, they were kind of upset at me, saying, well, sir, you know, there's nothing we can do about it.
I didn't do it.
You know, it's like that was their stance.
It wasn't me, so you can't get angry.
So if I found the person, I would certainly get angry at that person, but nobody knew who the person was.
Either that or the person was hiding in the back and they weren't going to, you know, rat on him.
I don't know.
Somebody did something, but nobody knows why.
So after another ten minutes of discussion, do we have somebody?
No, we have more music.
It would ring first.
Is this like the Manix theme or something?
Yeah.
Okay, anyway.
So after another ten minutes of discussion, she dug around the computer and she was able to actually do this for me.
This was a big favor.
She was able to get me a phone number in a different exchange that ended in the same four digits.
Isn't that great?
She gave me a number that ended in the same four digits.
And I, you know, I didn't want to be rude, but I said to the person, how does that help me?
You know, it's still the wrong number.
It doesn't help.
I mean, are the people supposed to guess the exchange with the last four digits?
You know, even if it was one number off, it's still the wrong number.
So it's not going to do me any good at all.
I need the number that you originally gave me.
That's the only number that's going to work because I already gave that number to everybody.
I guess it's just maybe a cultural thing or something.
It was like I was speaking some language that didn't exist.
They did not understand why I was upset what I wanted.
After a while, and this is something that has never happened with 9X.
I've never reached this point with 9X where I just gave up.
I just said, whatever.
Just give me whatever number you want to give me, and that'll be it.
Just give me that number, and let's just end this right now.
And so that's what happened.
They gave me the number that I didn't want a second time.
This is now my fourth phone number within, I think, 12 hours.
And then you called me back.
Then I called you.
I had this other bizarre number.
And then you informed me that a number that I would have liked to have had happened to be available
because you just dialed it and noticed it was available.
Yeah, which is always what you should do.
Yeah, I guess that's the way to do it.
But when I talked to the next OnlyPoint person, they said that's not the way to do it.
They said that that doesn't tell you anything.
Well, it tells me.
I know if it's free or not.
Yeah, I know.
It's common sense.
So anyway, yeah, so I see this number that's available, but I've just changed my number.
I have the fourth number.
I can't go and get a fifth number.
Fortunately, though, a friend of mine has a phone that we got the same exact time.
And we made a little deal.
All right?
But we called in on that person's account, waited another half hour for Omnipoint, coincidentally
got the same person the night before, probably because there's only one person there at night,
that gave me the first number that got changed for some reason that nobody knows why.
Then I got that person to give the second account the number that I really wanted, and then
I simply went and switched chips.
Little cards, you know, the things that you pull out in the back of the phone.
The SIM cards.
SIM cards.
I simply took one out of one phone, put it into the other phone.
That person's phone remained in their hands, but the number changed in my phone and vice
versa.
So they got the number I never wanted.
I got the number I did want on a different account.
Right.
So that was the cool thing about it, and the great thing is that Omnipoint had nothing
to do with that.
I just did that on my own without even telling them.
And that's what you can do with these phones.
You can, you know, mess around with the SIM cards.
So that problem was pretty much fixed.
But then, then we had some more problems with the second phone, with the other person's
phone, because they had originally a phone number in the same exchange that I wound up
in.
And when they were calling to get a different number, because they wanted a different number,
they didn't want the useless one that I had, the person said, oh, yeah, we're clearing
everybody out of that exchange because we can't use it.
Now, that was the exchange that I wound up finally in.
So now I'm just wondering, is that going to happen all over again?
Are they going to clear me out of this exchange?
I could, I could find that out.
That's, that's exactly, it's exactly the phrase that was used.
Exactly the phrase.
That is kind of strange.
Yeah.
So, um.
I can't help thinking in all this confusion that happened.
It's a horror story.
I can't help thinking that the fact that both of the phones you bought.
Uh-huh.
Right?
Yeah.
Somebody else was using one of them.
Uh-huh.
What are the odds that that person was trying to activate that phone at the same time and
they were confusing which one they should be setting up as a new service?
Well, here's the weird thing.
The first time I called up, I called up at about three in the morning because I figured,
you know, since they were so busy during the day and during the evening that maybe they
wouldn't be busy at night and they certainly were or just weren't.
And that's the other thing.
When I, when I talked to them, I said, are you guys really busy?
And they said, oh, no, not really.
I don't know what that 45 minute wait was all about.
But by the time I got through, I gave them, you know, my information, namely my name,
my fake social security number, and my real credit card number, they didn't ask me any
questions as far as my phone or anything like that.
They don't need to.
But how did they know I was calling from the phone that I wanted to activate?
They just assumed that's what I was doing.
They assumed I was calling from...
Please remain on the line.
We apologize for the delay.
A customer care representative will be available to assist you momentarily.
Thank you.
Yes, so they assumed that the phone I was using was the one I wanted to activate.
They would know that from the caller ID.
How did they know from the caller ID when I don't have a phone number yet?
Because in order for you to have your trial service...
Uh-huh, which I didn't know about at the time, and I didn't get to use my trial service.
But they give you a phone number in the 999 area code, which doesn't exist.
Yeah, I'm kind of curious how they managed to do that, too.
A&I shows up with 999 area code.
Yeah, well, it's just the number that they give in the phone that the switch recognizes.
Right.
But basically, if you call customer service, and they see the number you're coming from
is a 999 number, then they could look that up in their records, and they know exactly
what phone and what SIM card it is, and they could activate the service.
But supposing I used my friend's phone to activate my other phone.
Then you'd have to explain to them.
Yeah, except I didn't know I would have to explain to them, you see.
And when my friend called in the middle of the day, they asked for the numbers off the
box, they asked for the numbers on the phone, they asked for a shoe size, everything
you could possibly imagine.
I think because they had your number.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Figuratively.
Maybe so.
They were concerned about you, yet again, losing your phone number.
Anyway, I'm not really sure.
I have the number I want.
It seems to work most of the time.
Is anybody there?
Hmm.
Is anybody on the phone?
Just silence.
Sometimes the music goes away.
Yeah.
Ah, then the music comes back.
There you go.
All right.
See, the music is a very psychological thing.
That sort of helps you to realize.
I think the real problem is that they weren't ready for the call volume that they've gotten.
Uh-huh.
I mean, in between selling these Ericsson phones for only 50 bucks and then having the special
summer deals on the rates and having satisfied customers like us and like you will be, talking
about the phones on the air to hundreds of thousands of people.
Well, the thing, I mean, I am very impressed with the ease with which you can get the phone.
Right.
And the relative quickness with which you can get set up.
I have not yet gotten a bill, so I don't know exactly what I'm going to be getting as
far as that goes.
Um, I'm kind of worried because, you know, every time somebody calls you, it's, you know,
minutes adding up.
According to this thing, I've been on the phone for 12 hours.
12 hours in a week.
That's insane.
I don't use the phone that much.
Okay.
Well, if I was going to approximate.
Yeah.
Because of the plan that you're on.
Yeah.
You should be getting 300 free minutes.
Right.
Okay.
Which is five hours.
Six hours.
Oh, five hours.
You're right.
Five hours.
Yes.
Okay.
So that leaves an extra six that you have to account for.
Mm-hmm.
So, uh, depending whether it was peak or off-peak, it's either going to be 25 cents a
minute or, uh, or 49 cents a minute.
Better not be 49 cents a minute.
That's a lot of money.
Yeah.
Well, it depends.
25 cents is a lot of money.
Yeah.
Well, you mainly use the phone at night anyway, right?
Well, yeah, but that's the other thing.
I called them to ask them about the nighttime rate.
Actually, I got through to somebody today about that.
Yeah.
The quote was literally, I'm not sure about that.
I don't, I don't understand how that billing relates to the 300 free minutes.
Yeah.
I don't know if, see, I know that there was a deal, uh, nighttimes and weekends all summer,
a penny a minute.
But I don't know if that deal applies to all plans or if it only applies to the special introductory
999 plan.
That I don't know for certain.
You know what?
They don't know either because they said, well, I'm not sure about that.
Yeah.
And, you know, I just didn't pursue it.
I didn't really want to pursue it.
Well, I was actually surprised that you were able to get the Pioneer plan because,
uh, you're, you're, you weren't an original customer.
All you knew was to ask for it.
Uh-huh.
So, so that was, uh, I mean, obviously that's good for you because it's a good plan.
Right.
But, uh, I think, I just thought it was kind of funny.
Yes.
Well, you know, it's, it's been educational and, uh, you know, the phone itself is very
impressive.
I'm very impressed with the hardware and how it, uh, how it all works.
I'm not too impressed with the signal.
If I, if I, if I put this thing on my belt and put my shirt over it, lots of times I
lose signal.
Really?
Yes.
What's wrong with your, you have like a metal hip or something?
No.
Well, no, I think it's the shirt that would do it, but, uh.
I have my shirt over my phone.
I don't have problems.
Yeah, but the thing is, you can't read it when it's there.
If you, what I do is I grab the phone quickly and, and, and, and look at it.
Right.
And lots of times it says no network and then suddenly Omnipoint.
Right.
Like it just found Omnipoint, but it wasn't looking at it there.
Well.
I think that could be the answer to a lot of, uh, a lot of people not getting calls.
I'm not sure.
Hmm.
Again, I'm, I'm also, I'd like to know if this thing is transmitting all the time, if
it's pinging the transmitter, if it's just, you know, receiving data.
The only, I, I, I told you, it only, it only needs to send location update information.
If you, if you change cells, if you're, if you're in motion.
Mm-hmm.
If we're just sitting here doing nothing.
Right.
Then the only time your phone's going to receive anything is if the, um, the base transceiver
station needs to page your phone because there's a call, uh, an incoming call.
Mm-hmm.
You know, we're still on hold, by the way.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
You hear the, the hold music.
The music.
We've been on hold for over 18 minutes now.
Yeah.
For 18 minutes.
Okay.
Anyway, uh, we have Pam and David here who are going to be, uh, uh, updating us.
Uh, welcome, David.
Welcome.
How you doing?
Uh, and, uh, Pam, are you on that microphone over there?
I am.
Okay, great.
Uh, now, uh, we have the Beyond Hope Conference, which, uh, is coming in, um, August, August 8th,
9th, and 10th.
Uh, we're starting to finalize the schedule.
We have Brock Meeks giving the opening address, uh, Saturday at noon.
Uh, we've got all kinds of panels on social engineering,
GSM phones, uh, various different hacker groups.
We're also going to have a link overseas to the, uh, HIP conference, Hacking in Progress,
which happens over in, um, Holland, near Amsterdam, in a campground.
Uh, we'll have a lot of people hooked up on the internet throughout all the, um, all the conferences
that are going on.
We'll have a live broadcast of Off the Hook, Saturday night from 6 to 8 p.m.
We're going to try to put that on real audio and get it to, uh, people all over the world
at the same time.
Uh, tell us what else is going on.
We've been doing a lot of, uh, organizing, trying to get people to volunteer their time
and effort to help us out.
Um, we've been holding volunteer meetings every Friday night locally and here in New York
City.
A lot of volunteers showing up, which is really good.
Yeah.
A lot of good people we've met out of this.
And, uh, what happened at the last HOPE conference, we met all kinds of, uh, of, of cool people.
And, uh, I think actually you were one of the cool people that came out of the last HOPE conference.
Well, thank you.
And, um, it's, it's just a way to, to, to, uh, meet similarly thinking type people, I
guess.
People that are interested in technology and where we're going with it.
It's been pretty interesting.
I mean, people are pretty much willing to do almost anything.
Uh, they really have a volunteer spirit.
Um, we're still looking for volunteers.
There's still plenty of things that need to get done.
So if people are interested, they're welcome to come by our volunteer meetings.
I understand we do have our net set up, uh, worked out.
We're going to have a 10 megabit connection to the internet.
Friber, why don't you tell us what that means?
That's very fast.
It's pretty fast.
It's a whole lot faster than the last time we had a 2400 baud modem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a 10 megabit, uh, speed.
It's basically native ethernet speed to the internet.
Actually, no, it wasn't 2400.
It was 20, 20, uh, 28, 28, yes.
I mix those numbers up a lot.
It confuses people, but, uh, no, it's a 28, 8 connection, but it sort of acted like a 2400 baud modem.
Um, yeah, um, tell us about 10 megabit.
Yeah, 10 megabit is, uh, basically native ethernet speed.
And while you can't expect to have 10 megabits of bandwidth available to just you, to the entire world, because the back...
I expect that.
The backbones of the internet, you know, probably more than 90% of the backbones that make up the internet are still, uh, 44, 45 megabit, uh, T3 carriers.
So we'll be straining the backbone of the internet itself.
Yes, you can't expect to have one-fourth of that to yourself at all times.
Uh-huh.
Um, but from what I understand of the service provider, they have a connection to the, uh, the, uh, the NAP downtown.
Uh-huh.
Uh, that's the, uh, the network access point.
Okay.
The NAP.
The NAP.
That's the sleepy about it.
All right.
Yeah.
We'll be in the NOC.
Yeah.
You'll be in the NOC connecting to the NAP.
Via the 10 megabit connection.
Talking to the NIC.
Talking, yeah, talking to the NIC.
Yeah, going through the NIC.
Yeah.
We're going to talk about the NIC.
Oh, yeah, we've got to mention the NIC.
We've got to mention the NIC, but never mind the NIC, let's talk about the NAP.
The NAP.
The NAP is, um, the NAP is downtown.
Okay.
It's at, um, if I remember correctly, the NAP is at, uh, 60 Hudson Street.
Is it?
Yeah.
And, um, that's the New York NAP.
Okay.
That would be the 9-NAP.
The 9-NAP, yes.
And, um, so that will ensure that you'll probably have, uh, a good 10 megabits of bandwidth available
to you, uh, for most, most of the, uh, northeastern part of the United States.
Right.
Once, once you start getting, uh, you know, traveling further, uh, distances and you start
going over other, other people's networks, um, then obviously, like I said, you're not
going to have a fourth of that backbone bandwidth all to yourself.
It's going to be considerably less, but it would still be, uh, during idle times, uh,
when other people are idle, you'll still have a lot more available to you than if you
just had a T1, which is roughly only about one and a half times the, uh, speed.
And, of course, the people over in Holland are going to have a similar type of setup
because they happen to be the biggest internet provider in Holland, so they'll have, uh,
10 megabit as well.
Right.
And this is really a first.
What I said just didn't make any sense whatsoever.
Well, I was going to gloss over that, but go ahead.
T1 is about a tenth of the speed of a 10 megabit line.
Okay.
So there.
All right.
So it's like we have, we have 10 T1s.
It's almost as if you have 10 times the speed of a T1.
T1 is roughly a one and a half megabits.
Okay.
Well, that's cool.
Yeah.
So the people in Holland will have, uh, a similar type of a setup.
We'll have, uh, the fastest hacker, uh, connectivity, I think, ever, you know, for the hacker convention.
First time ever two hacker conventions happen at the same time, uh, which is also very unique.
We'll have links, video links between the two cons.
We'll have, uh, conferencing of various sorts, panels where participants are on different sides of the ocean.
I'm waiting for somebody to, uh, to actually try and make it to both conferences.
You know, I was talking to Rob over in Holland earlier today and, and, and basically we figured
the only way it could really happen would be if the person started in Holland and made
their way over to New York at some point because they're six hours ahead of us and they have,
uh, more activities on Friday.
We have mostly set up on Friday and we'll be, uh, we'll have videos and, and, and maybe some
things coming over from Holland as well, but the bulk of our activity takes place on Saturday
and Sunday.
Um, so it would be nice if somebody actually was able to, to show up all bedraggled in
New York and, and be on the other side of the camera and, and say hi to all the people
in Holland.
Be even more impressive still if they could be both places at once.
That we haven't figured out yet how to do, but we're working on it.
Well, maybe we should issue a challenge, you know, we'll offer a free shower to anyone
who actually does it.
I'll personally volunteer my shower.
Okay.
If anybody manages to do it.
That's pretty generous of us.
We could do that.
Yeah.
That's, uh, all right.
The offer is, is, is on the table now.
It's on the table.
Um, now as far as, um, as far as what else we, we need, um, we've got the network.
I think we might need some sound equipment.
Still need sound equipment.
I think we're having, we're having some trouble getting sound equipment.
Yeah.
It's just what, to amplify things?
Amplifiers, speakers, microphones.
If you have any stuff like that, definitely get in touch with us.
Don't we have speakers?
We have some speakers.
Okay.
We need more, though.
We need more.
They probably, we probably still need cabling and microphones.
And, uh, we're in the process, I think, of building the connect out box from the amplifier,
uh, just to feed whatever other audio things we're doing.
Um, we still need, uh, theatrical type, you know, some curtains, lights, that kind of stuff.
If anybody's got that.
Um.
If you're interested in helping out, just show up this Friday at Citicorp in the, um,
in the, uh, atrium area where the tables have been put back where they belong.
Finally.
And, uh, that's at, what, 7 p.m.?
7 p.m. this Friday, uh, at Citicorp Center, which is at 53rd and Lax.
And if you can't make it, send email.
Um.
Wait, wait, wait.
Oh.
Oh, it's looped, I think.
Is anybody on the phone?
I think it's looped.
Yeah.
It would start ringing if somebody was about to pick up.
Okay.
I just feel very, okay.
I, I, I just feel very nervous until that music starts again, you know.
It's, it's something that you, you need.
Okay, anyway.
Uh, we've been on the phone now for 26 minutes, by the way.
Uh, what I would advise people to do, if they really want to get involved, first of all,
is if you have web access, go to the website.
Right.
www.hope.net.
Constantly changing.
Constantly changing.
In fact, uh, I've been furiously typing and working on the volunteer fact, which hopefully
we'll put up tonight.
Okay.
Um, very detailed.
It tells you all the different volunteer positions that are available and, uh, you know,
about, about the timing and what you can expect.
What I, what I was going to say before was, if, if you can't make it to the meeting, send
email to val, D-O-L, at hope.net.
Yeah, definitely.
And, uh, we'll get back to you as far as that goes.
Well, if they don't have email, I guess you can call 516-751-2600 and leave a message
at extension zero.
But, uh, it actually is much faster if you send email because we check that almost all
the time.
Definitely.
And the, the website will have details.
We're hoping actually to put up a, a volunteer registration area so that you can tell us what
you want to do and when.
Um, but that's, you know, we're, we still need volunteers for everything.
Security, uh, registration, selling soda.
Uh, helping us keep the place clean, setting up, breaking down.
We have, uh, all kinds of interesting things going on in the, uh, in the programming.
Uh, Bruce Schneier is coming in.
He'll be talking about encryption.
We have Ira Winkler who'll be, uh, doing some, uh, some legal, uh, panel type of thing.
And we have a decisive Kevin Mitnick, or definitive rather, Kevin Mitnick panel where we dispel some
rumors.
Uh, we're going to have media people up there answering questions from hackers the other
way around.
And all kinds of other things.
While we're about 90% full, I would say, we still are leaving some room open in case
someone has a really, really good idea for something to, uh, you know, to do.
And there'll be all kinds of informal things, too.
What goes on in the lecture room is only one thing.
We have the network room.
We have the merchandise room.
We have all of New York City, too.
There'll be special events happening throughout.
And, uh, what's with all these Beyond Hope stickers I see everywhere?
Someone's going crazy out there.
They're everywhere.
Yeah.
That is something.
David, do you have anything to add?
Well, we just finished, uh, producing the CD-ROMs of the Off the Hook radio show.
So, we have, uh, 1988 to June of 1997 covered, um, in an attractive four-volume set.
Yeah, that's, uh, that is something.
Also, um, we'd still need, uh, people to come with, uh, Cat5 cable and hubs would be nice.
Hubs, hubs, hubs.
Hubs, yeah.
Uh, we're also probably looking for people, if you aren't very elitist about your networking
skills and have people skills to help people, you know, get themselves set up on the network
once they're there.
And we also advise if people are planning to bring hardware, bring notebooks.
Um, it's easier to set up, easier to maintain, easier for security.
And, uh, if you don't have Ethernet cards or PCMSA cards, we can try to hook you up.
Okay.
Uh, any questions, you can call us now, 212-279-3400.
We're going to keep Omnipoint on hold, hopefully throughout.
Uh, it is possible.
It is possible that they may, uh, come on, this is not right.
This is not right.
You've got to admit, this is bad.
No, I think this is a simple case of them not anticipating how well the phones are going
to sell.
But it's been over a week that this has been going on like this.
I know.
This is not right.
I mean, come on, I'm sure we can get some of our volunteers that we get on Friday to
go down there and help them answer the phones.
It didn't used to be like this.
It used to get right through.
Yeah.
It's, uh, it's, it's pretty bad.
Anyway, so we're going to, we're going to see how long we can stay on hold with them, but,
uh, we are off at nine o'clock, so, uh, there's only so much we can do.
Okay.
So let's take some phone calls.
212-279-3400.
Whoops.
How do these phones work when you drop them?
Um, I've, I've dropped mine and, uh, it's stored.
I just dropped mine now, so I'd just like to know if it's going to be okay.
Oh, it slid.
It didn't drop.
It sort of went clunk.
Uh, well, it should be fine.
Okay.
I've dropped my beeper many times.
Yeah.
I just want to make sure that, uh, it survives.
Okay.
Um, the number is 212-279-3400.
David, do you have one more thing?
I have a question.
Yes.
I want to understand, why does Omnipoint have a lock on GSM in the metropolitan area?
Why is it that when Sprint has GSM in parts of the country, they bring PCS, but not GSM?
I have a very good answer for that.
Let's hear the answer.
The answer for that is because the GSM companies banded together into the North American GSM
consortium.
You mean a monopoly?
No consortium.
Well, okay, but there's only one, one company.
I call that a monopoly, right?
I mean, let's not, let's not mix words here.
Not really, because there aren't any other GSM companies that are trying to take over Omnipoint's
turf, because here, let me explain to you something.
GSM is an old world protocol.
Right, I know.
It comes from Europe.
Yes.
Okay.
In order to license the use of GSM and all the rights and privileges thereof, you have
to sign what's known as the Memorandum of Understanding.
Uh-oh.
And the Memorandum of Understanding, or the MOU, as it's known as.
Yeah, the MOU comes from the ETSI.
That's the European Telecommunications Standardizations Institute.
Okay?
And everyone goes through an approval process.
And, you know, all the companies, rather.
And, essentially, what would happen is, let's say, Omnipoint.
Omnipoint would go through the approval process.
They get approved.
They're, you know, licensed members of the Memorandum of Understanding group, which includes,
you know, 119 countries all over the world, and blah, blah, blah.
The music went away again.
Did it?
Yeah.
Horrible.
Oh, there it is.
There it is.
So, basically, all the companies that are offering GSM in North America have banded together
and are not competing with each other on their own turf.
Just as a...
It sounds like the baby bells all over again.
No, it seems...
Before they started competing with each other on their own turf.
It seems more of a gentleman's agreement.
Gentleman's agreement.
Yeah, well, how is it...
I mean, as far as another company that just wants to start up GSM service, are they prevented
from doing this?
No, not at all.
By this MOU?
No, not at all.
They're not prevented by it.
The other thing in the U.S.
These gentlemen's agreements, though, I don't know if the customer benefits.
Doesn't the customer benefit from competition?
No, the customer benefits from the fact that if he's using his phone in the New York metropolitan
area, including New Jersey, northern Pennsylvania, and so on and so forth, that if he has a problem,
he's going to call Omnipoint, because that's the company that serves this area.
If he goes further down south, let's say he goes down to D.C. or Maryland, then he knows
he's going to be served by APC, Sprint Spectrum, right?
And if he has a problem down there, then he can call Sprint Spectrum.
If he goes further south, it's Bell South Mobility, and so on and so forth.
What if he has a problem and then he hates the company and doesn't want to use them?
Then he's got a real problem, doesn't he?
Well, then you have a problem, but the good thing, though, is, and you might argue that
this is a monopoly kind of thing, is that everyone who's part of the North American
GSM Consortium is agreed on what the roaming rates should be, which currently are 69 cents
a minute.
Mercy.
That's roaming.
Yes.
Roaming plus the cost of the call.
No, that's it.
If it's a long-distance call, then it's plus the cost of the call.
I was talking to somebody today in New York who's visiting from California, and I was calling
their mobile number in California.
We were trying to figure out how many different charges there were going on here.
I was calling California, and then he was calling back here on his roaming to New York.
Right.
How many different rates were going on there?
Who was paying what?
Well, if you call California, it's simply a long-distance call for you, which he answers,
and he just gets billed for having an incoming call.
It doesn't matter where a call is incoming from.
It's just an incoming call.
It gets billed as the normal local off-peak rates.
So I pay a long-distance call.
You're saying he just pays a regular roaming charge.
No, he's not roaming if he was at home.
No, he wasn't at home.
He was in New York.
Oh, he wasn't at home.
His phone comes from California.
I was calling California and bouncing right back to New York.
I see.
Yeah, so...
I could have chatted down the street and probably be hurt just as well.
Right.
So you called California.
That's a long-distance charge for you.
Right.
For him to receive the call when he's out of his home area, he's charged the roaming charge
per minute to receive the call.
Does he get charged for a call from California to New York?
No.
Doesn't?
Okay, so he just pays, what, the 69 cents per minute or whatever the roaming...
Or whatever the rate is for his particular company.
He's charged the roaming per minute rate.
So who gets to pay more?
The caller or the callee?
In a situation like that.
In a situation like that, I think that you would pay more.
Cool.
Okay, I win.
Yeah.
Excellent.
Because you're making the longer-distance call.
He's just roaming.
Just roaming around.
Okay.
Well, that's about all I want to know about this particular subject.
Let's see if there's anyone out there.
212-279-3400.
We're going to try to keep Omnipoint on hold, or they're going to try to keep us on hold.
We'll just keep them on the line.
Good evening.
You're on...
Oh, boy.
That's...
That's bad.
Let's try this.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Oh, wow.
I'm the first caller.
Thank you.
Sounds like you are.
Yes.
Try to speak over the hold music.
Oh, joy.
I'm looking to get ISDN, and...
ISDN, old technology now.
Oh, yeah.
I'm also looking forward to the joy of waiting on hold with 9X to get it.
Actually, ISDN has gotten much, much faster and better, and...
Are you with 9X?
You're a 9X person?
Oh, yeah.
I'm in New York.
Well, then you know that it's free installation until September.
Yes.
Well, that's kind of why I'm...
Sound pretty enthusiastic about that.
David, I think, has something to contribute on this subject.
Go ahead, David.
If you would like to get ISDN really, really quickly...
Yes.
If you go to my website...
Uh-huh.
Which is?
Which is www.david.com...
What a name.
Okay.
There's an online ISDN order form, and if you read through the first couple pages and
go to the form, when you fill it out, it gets submitted directly to the guys who provision
the lines, and it cuts out a whole bunch of red tape and a whole lot of time.
Oh, what a man.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So give that a try, and...
Oh, yeah.
But my question really is...
Yes.
Should I...
I'm trying to figure out which TA to get.
So the 3Com or the Motorola Bitsurfer, they both seem pretty similar.
All right, let's just five hours speak on this.
The question is, what do you want to do with it?
Oh, it's mainly, you know, email, surfing, whatever, research, and, you know, some calling.
It'll be voice and data.
Yeah.
So, and how many machines are you going to be using it?
Oh, just one.
So you only have one machine at home you're going to be using it with?
Yeah.
Then you're probably, yeah, your best bet would probably be to get a terminal adapter as
opposed to a router, like you said.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, I don't need a router.
See, personally, I would say to get the Motorola.
The Motorola.
Why is that?
As opposed to the 3Com.
Because I know through personal experience that you'll get better support from Motorola.
Right.
Also, I find that it seems to be more solid of a product.
And it has...
I don't remember if the 3Com's terminal adapter had enhanced POTS support for custom calling
features.
Yeah, it does.
You had to upgrade the firmware, but, yeah.
So, Motorola's had that practically from the beginning.
Yes.
So, I think that if you were going to talk about a question of stability, I would go with the
company that's been offering those features in the hardware longer.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Yay.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Thanks.
Thanks very much for calling in.
I'm glad we could make your day so pleasant.
212-279-3400.
Let's see if we can squeeze in some more people here.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yes, Emanuel.
Hi.
Oh.
Line six.
All right.
I went to line six.
How did he get to line six?
All right.
He's always on line one.
Then I stopped answering line two.
Now he's on line six.
Like musical cheers.
I can't.
There's nothing I can do.
All right.
Well, I want to relate a story.
All right.
You only have about a minute.
All right.
Good.
I think I should be called now the phone Samaritan.
The phone Samaritan?
You know why?
Why?
I was working.
I was, you know, doing my usual, you know, messenger work.
Uh-huh.
And ran into a couple of people that was having trouble with a pay phone.
He delivers bad news.
He's a messenger of bad news.
Yeah.
I was having, uh, they were having trouble because, of course, the pay phones are stopped.
The coin return slaps by the homeless people.
By the homeless people that you always notice doing this.
Yes.
Right.
And I just stopped them and said, you know, don't put money in there.
And the person said, hey, you know, I lost some money.
So I told her, you know, I helped her get her money back.
And I told her, no, don't, don't do this.
You know, I explained how the homeless people stopped to pay from this.
He said, oh, oh, wow.
You know, I'm all in my years in living in New York City.
I never knew this.
You know, and I simply explained to him.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Okay.
We've got, hello.
Hello.
Whoa.
This is your OmniPoint operator.
May I have your name and mobile number?
Oh, dear.
I was trying to reach 9X.
Sorry.
You what?
Oh, boy.
Okay, they're gone.
38.
Wow, I had nothing to ask them.
Oh, I thought you were going to ask them, you know, is there a problem?
Why are you?
No, I didn't want to put them on the spot.
But I did want to say it took exactly 38 minutes and 59 seconds for them to get through.
The OmniPoint operator.
Oh, we lost Rebel.
Oh.
It's kind of fitting that they showed up at just that moment, though.
Yeah.
Causing me to panic and disconnect everybody.
38 minutes and 59 seconds.
Well, I don't know.
I think there's room for improvement here, guys.
So we'll see about that.
All right, let's take some more phone calls in the time we have left.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
I don't know.
Go ahead.
Speak up.
Barry?
Yes, go ahead.
Okay, you're going to have to speak faster than that.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi, guys.
It's me.
I made it two weeks in a row.
How about that?
How are you doing?
Good.
I'll be very brief tonight.
Okay.
A question and an announcement.
Do you mean to tell me that my vocal cord utterances are now preserved forever distinctly on CD-ROM?
We'll have more details about that at the conference.
We can't say anything further right now.
I get it autographed by Fiber?
That's a possibility, too.
Okay.
But, again, we can't say anything about that right now.
Okay.
And the announcement is I'm going to be at the Blue Note tonight.
I want tickets from your very own station to see Regina Bell at 1130.
So, if anyone wants to say hi, look for a 300-pound man in a corduroy sports coat.
Okay?
Wow.
Okay.
And I guess that could also serve as a warning to people in that part of the day.
Well, it depends how many drinks I've had when they come up to me.
We can talk about the finer points of cyber jazz.
But, anyway, I love you guys.
Take care.
And Baba Booey.
All right.
I can't believe you said that on my show.
But, okay, go ahead.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Okay.
You were on the air.
Now, you're on the air.
Okay.
Great.
I guess they're related in some way.
Let's try...
Should we try line six again?
Sure.
All right.
What are the odds?
What are the odds?
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yes.
Okay.
Now, what I was saying was this.
What I was saying was this.
There is a God and he hates me.
Now, let me just...
All right.
Let me just get back to what I was saying.
Oh, what I was saying.
Yeah.
So, I was with this woman who was losing her money.
And she said that all her years in New York City, she's never encountered this.
And I explained to her about what happens with the, you know, some of the pay phones in the village and stuff.
Then I encountered this other people.
Really?
Fascinating.
So, other people wanted to make...
These other foreigners who were in, you know, visiting, wanted to make an international call.
They said, I'm having trouble calling...
I forgot what country it was.
Collect.
Because whenever on those new 9X pay phones, you dial 011, it says...
So, they come to rebel the phone counselor.
And you guided them to what?
Yeah.
I...
They...
Well, you know how the phone, when you dial 011 or 011, it says, we're sorry, restricted number?
Well, I don't often call 011 numbers from a pay phone, but...
Okay.
Well, on these new phones, the 9X phones that cut you off...
Uh-huh.
Now, I explained to them that, okay, these phones, you have to dial a certain one.
So, I...
You cannot dial 01 or 011.
You cannot dial a carrier access code and then 01.
You have to dial 10288 or a carrier access code 10288 or 222.
Get the operators, you know, the AT&T or whatever long distance company you want.
The ones that come on right away, yes.
Then you dial the 01 when it says, the AT&T, please dial the number you are calling.
Then you dial the 01.
So, these people were very thankful and things like that.
Uh-huh.
Well, it's good to know that you're out there working for the forces of good and not working
for the forces of evil.
And hopefully, we'll hear more stories from you in the future.
Thank you very much for calling.
Line 6.
Cross that one off.
Okay.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello?
Yes.
Emmanuel?
Yes.
And Laszlo.
Laszlo.
Yes.
The Laszlo.
Yes.
The Laszlo from that other radio station.
Yes.
How you doing?
You're on the air, you know.
Yeah, that's good.
I'll keep the profanity to a minimum.
That'd be good, yes.
You know about the FCC and all.
Yes.
So, you know a lot about this whole Omnipoint service?
Well, I've experienced it.
Farber knows more about it because he's experienced it for longer than me.
I've been a customer since the beginning.
Since the very beginning.
From what I understand, they don't have service in Nassau and Suffolk.
They have service in the western part of Nassau.
Yeah.
Now, they say, if you look at all their propaganda, they say coming in the summer of 1997, all
of Long Island, all the way out to the tip of Montauk.
I don't know if they're way behind or what.
I can't get a straight answer from them on that.
Because I talked to one of the executives there, who I forgot his name, so it's probably
a good thing, who said that they had this whole plan of wiring the whole island, and
then somebody goofed up or upset a union, or whomever was supposed to put the sticks
up, and all of a sudden...
Really?
Yeah.
And so what happened was the unions, and I don't know who specifically they are, but
they said, you know, hell with you, and they decided they can't get the sticks up, so they've
got millions of dollars in advertising.
I mean, you see full-page ads in the New York Times all the time.
Yes.
Those are like minimum $40,000, $50,000 a piece.
Things on buses.
And buses...
Parrot.
The TV, they had the parrots at the PC Expo in the city.
Right.
They had the whole deal, but yet they don't have any service out here.
And he said that, like, some people were, their jobs, they were, like, fired and serious
jeopardy because it was such a dumb, multi-million dollar mistake.
Well, I heard they were going to put the things on telephone poles, of all things, the transmitters.
So, I mean, the sticks, as you put it, are already up, supposedly.
Then why aren't they operating?
I don't know.
And I'd like to find out exactly what stage that operation is in because they have been
saying for quite some time, if there's a change, they should tell people, most definitely.
So, and he told me, because they were going to set me up with a free phone, and I said,
well, what am I supposed to do with it?
Look, you know, look at it all day?
Well, there are things you can do.
There's a calculator on those things.
Really?
Yeah.
You can do all kinds of calculations.
Wow.
Other than that, though, there's not a whole lot.
You know, you can try to check your mail, but it won't ever make a phone call because
it can't get a signal.
So, well, who else is going to be providing service around here?
Nobody?
Well, that's part of that gentleman's agreement, is that nobody else will be providing service.
Well, not GSM service, anyway.
Yeah.
There's other kinds of service, but the kind of phone you have.
What kind of phone do you have, or what do you have?
I have a cellular.
Uh-huh.
So I haven't even, I mean, I don't even, I haven't even bothered with it.
I'm not an early adopter, as you are.
Right.
Well, the cellular phones are totally different.
They work on a much more powerful antenna system.
Right, and I need reliability.
I mean, there's no point in me getting a phone that's not going to be of any use to me if
I'm in Nassau County.
If it was covered, if the whole area was covered with these things, it would be a great service,
a really good service.
The phones are very sophisticated.
You can do all kinds of neat things with them.
And the biggest problem, apart from the 40-minute wait, is getting a signal.
Because when this whole service was coming out, I was in Oklahoma City for a couple weeks,
and my father had one.
And, like, Oklahoma City's wired, but New York isn't.
I don't understand this.
Oklahoma City is the home of Will Tell, is it?
I don't think it has anything to do with this.
No, but, yeah, Will Tell is in Oklahoma.
Yeah.
I mean, they're wiring bits of the country, you know, piece by piece.
So, yeah, it's developing technology.
And I think, you know, they should give people a break on prices when things are, you know,
developing at that stage.
And also, keep in mind, the whole GSM business was supposed to be substantially cheaper.
Now, the phone is cheap.
There's no contract.
But the price per minute, I still think, is way too high.
It should be a lot closer to, say, you know, 10 cents a minute or less than, you know,
what I see now, 25, 49 cents a minute.
Those are old-fashioned cellular rates.
And I think, you know, a lot more people will sign up.
Of course, I don't know if they want a lot more people signing up right now
until they get more people to answer the phone.
Right.
Well, they've got too many barriers to entry right now, price being one of them.
I mean, the phones, a lot of times, are $150.
Right.
Or $100.
Well, Laszlo, we're out of time.
Hey, we're going to see you at Hope, right?
Yes.
And we'll have to talk later about at what time I'm supposed to show up.
Yes.
Okay.
Well, you're going to be there the whole time.
Oh, okay.
You're going to be one of the main attractions.
Oh, how exciting.
Yes.
So, I look forward to seeing you then.
And, of course, we'll talk before then.
But right now, we are out of time.
Thanks so much for calling.
Thank you, man.
All right.
And coming up next is Housing Notebook, of course.
We'll be back again next week with another exciting edition
and more updates on the Beyond Hope conference.
And who knows?
I guess we'll have all kinds of fun Omnipoint adventures between now and then.
I discovered one thing.
Okay, one discovery.
Voice styling?
Right.
If you make a voice styling call, right?
Caller ID is not passed along.
It's not?
It's not passed along if you make a voice styling call.
It's something to check into.
A&I is passed along.
Caller ID is not.
Really?
Yes.
So, we'll have to leave you with that perplexed look on your face.
Interesting.
Until next week when we'll be back again with some more exciting, fun-filled things.
Until then, this is Emanuel Goldstein.
Have yourselves a good night.
Emanuel Goldstein.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse, but if I could, they would.
A really bombed was I'd best expect from worse.
I hope I've understood
But didn't it know?
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