The Shrine

$3 a month for calling any landline within the US and Canada is pretty solid deal. Is that unlimited? Seems insanely cheap

http://psp.ign.com/articles/848/848561p1.html

Not necessarily... since you're using VOIP and you have to pay for your internet separately. I just hate Skype from a professional standpoint because it does some VERY shady things to get around security, and other information no one knows why it's collecting.

Probably never use this like I'll never use the internet radio feature or the web browser. But thanks for the superfluous functionality, Sony!

Now somebody tell me where I should buy an R4.

Just google R4.

Zeus wrote:$3 a month for calling any landline within the US and Canada is pretty solid deal. Is that unlimited? Seems insanely cheap

http://psp.ign.com/articles/848/848561p1.html

Who uses landlines? Besides business and commercial joints... i'd have no one to call for my $3.

Flip wrote:

Zeus wrote:$3 a month for calling any landline within the US and Canada is pretty solid deal. Is that unlimited? Seems insanely cheap

http://psp.ign.com/articles/848/848561p1.html

Who uses landlines? Besides business and commercial joints... i'd have no one to call for my $3.

I don't own a cellphone....

Zeus wrote:

Flip wrote:

Zeus wrote:$3 a month for calling any landline within the US and Canada is pretty solid deal. Is that unlimited? Seems insanely cheap

http://psp.ign.com/articles/848/848561p1.html

Who uses landlines? Besides business and commercial joints... i'd have no one to call for my $3.

I don't own a cellphone....

You dont only so you can say you dont. Practicality says cell phones are good, for anyone for any reasons.

Zeus wrote:I don't own a cellphone....

What's wrong? Do you not believe in the concept of cell phones? Do you have a problem with how the government regulates cell phones? Really, what soapbox issue is it this time?

Flip wrote:

Zeus wrote:

Flip wrote: Who uses landlines? Besides business and commercial joints... i'd have no one to call for my $3.

I don't own a cellphone....

You dont only so you can say you dont. Practicality says cell phones are good, for anyone for any reasons.

Flip, you really seem to have the wrong impression of me on a few levels.

I don't own a cellphone because for my purposes, they're far too expensive. I simply don't use it enough to warrant the cost (up here, cell phones are about twice as expensive as down there). I had one for 3 months (had my mom's while she was out of the country) and hardly used it.

It's a convenience for me, nothing more. I only "need" a cellphone once every year and a half or two years, not worth the minimum $35 a month (200 minutes, evenings & weekends starting at 6pm; enough to be considered convenient and is BY FAR the best deal I could find up here) I would have to pay. That's why I don't have one.

And really, no one NEEDS a cellphone unless they structure their lives around it. There's always an alternative. I commute 65km each way and work late and I still never really "need" one

SineSwiper wrote:

Zeus wrote:I don't own a cellphone....

What's wrong? Do you not believe in the concept of cell phones? Do you have a problem with how the government regulates cell phones? Really, what soapbox issue is it this time?

Convenience more than anything else, see my answer to Flip above.

What I dislike is two things:

1) In Canada, the telecom companies are like the moguls in the argument we were having in Rum with Ish: there's no competition through an unofficial cartel. It's an oligopoly of 3 companies in Canada and they really act like the petroleum companies. So they're far inflating the prices. Here we pay about twice as much as you guys do for the same service and often with less of a range and a less reliable network (same thing with Internet and cable and satellite TV BTW).

As a result of these predatory practices, they're far to expensive as I explained in my other post. It's gotten so bad and blatant that our pussy-ass government FINALLY decided to open up the airwaves to non-Canadian carriers (bidding is in May). And our government don't do jack for the consumers. This is HUGE up here and the "experts" (I use that term lightly) are expecting a 40-50% drop in rates. I say 25% at most (you think the American companies won't want in on at least some of that action?) but that's still huge compared to what we've been paying.

(someday I'll tell you about the $7+ "system access fee" the telecom companies tried to pass off as a "government regulated fee", got called on their bullshit bluff, then said "fuck it, we still want it" and shoved it up the customers' asses....which the customers STILL gladly pay and keep asking for more...fucking dipshits)

2) What irks me the most is the irresponsibility and complete lack of etiquette so many people exhibit with their cellphones. This has nothing to do with the companies at all, the blame purely falls on the individuals with it. It's gotten so freakin' bad that people just accept it now. Everything including (but not limited to):

- fucksticks going 85km in the left lane (officially speed limit is 100 but unofficially it's 120 which is traffic flow and the speed cops have come out and said they won't stop people from going; but that's a whole other argument)
- a whore mother I wanted to kill who talked - very loudly - on a 7am commuter bus for two fucking hours about her daughter (including intricate details about her first period) while most of us were trying to sleep
- people running into me at a stop light because they're talking on the phone and aren't paying attention (iPoDs have the same issue here)
- me actually having to stop someone from crossing the street to their death for not paying attention (iPoDs same thing again)
- constant ringing and/or illumation from text messaging during a movie (and people have the audacity to complain about someone talking during a movie)
- the majority of people who can't even remember their own mother's phone number anymore 'cause the only place they can access it is on their cellphone
- the shitty reception and constant issue of batteries dying

These are things I deal with almost on a daily basis (I won't even bother with the fact that it's a convenience as much for the person's family and friends as it is for the person). Again, it has nothing to do with the technology, it's all about the reliance people have on it and the complete lack of any sort of respect for others that has come from them. It much more of a social norm thing that is tied directly to them. Still a big problem I have with the cells anyways.

Just because most people decide to ignore or live with these facts don't mean I have to. The stuff on my chest, back, and ass is hair, not wool

How much do you pay for a landline? I was paying over $50 a month for one, while my cell phone is between $30 and $40.

Kupek wrote:How much do you pay for a landline? I was paying over $50 a month for one, while my cell phone is between $30 and $40.

$58 after taxes but that comes with 1000 minutes long distance to North America 24/7 and an unlimited answering machine and three-way calling (which I use all the time).

Trust me, you can't get that equivalent up here, I've looked. Also, when you factor in that I'd have to get one for both my wife and I it just ain't worth it. We'd be payin' an easy $50-100 more to get what we get now (my long distance fluctuates every month).

The home phones are in the same boat BTW. It's just cheaper to have one of those than a cellphone. I don't hate the telecom companies for no reason, man