If you’re one of the millions of cell phone users who count on
their wireless phone for emergency 911 calling,

You might want to think again……..

Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that your wireless 911 call will be routed to an emergency call center. Much less, that the emergency dispatcher will have the ability to pinpoint your call’s location.

Why?

Part of the problem is lack of service. Often, in more rural
areas, your cell phone has fewer towers available to receive
reception. And, many of those towers are designed for analog calls - not digital.

But, since the FCC does not require it, fewer carriers offer
analog service — or the ability to connect to it.

Not surprising, since much of the carriers’ revenue is dependant on features available only on digital networks.

Another problem?

There is no uniform Ehanced 911 system (E911) for wireless carriers. The fault lies mainly with the FCC, who has once again neglected to force all carriers to conform their systems to a single technology.

Because of this, there are now two very incompatable E911 systems in the works.

Nextel, Sprint and Verizon each have cell phones that use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to find a caller’s location. While Cingular/AT&T and T-Mobile rely on a triangulation system.

Unfortunately, both E911 systems have their flaws. The GPS system needs a minimum of three satalites to be able to “read” the handset’s location. Accuracy can be hampered by heavy vegetation, mountains or tall buildings.

The triangulation system also has its shortcomings. The system relies on the strength and timing of cell towers to determine a location. It too, requires multiple towers for accuracy. This becomes more difficult in rural areas where towers are scarce.

To compound the problem, Emergency Call Centers are not equipt with the technology needed to field E911 calls. Most smaller centers lack the funding for the sophisticated equiptment, while others lack the knowledge on how to integrate E911 into their existing system.

According to a 2004 article in the San Diego Union Tribune, only about 12% of the country’s 911 centers had the ability to pinpoint the location of wireless phone users emergency calls.

Which cell phone is best?

Dual band, or tri-band phones, allow both analog and digital frequencies. If a 911 call does not connect in a digital mode, the alternate analog network is available.

The FCC mandates that any carrier offering multi-frequency phones, must allow the 911 call to roam to another service if the call can not be completed on their own network.

Currently, only Cingular/AT&T and Verizon offer dual or tri-bands for both their service and handsets. Sprint PCS and T-Mobile wireless phones rely on a digital band, but provide an option to roam for an analog signal.

Nextel uses the iDEN network for their cell phones. Because Nextel is the only major carrier using this technology, 911 calls may be difficult to “hand off” to other carriers when roaming and may be dropped.

Sandra Landwehr is the knowledgable webmaster of The Cell Phone Advisor.com, a site offering information and advice on choosing a free cell phone and plan.

More than we want to admit it, perception is everything. After weeks of negative statements regarding an issue, the President’s ratings plummet. The President then hits the road with a PR campaign and his ratings go back up. What changed? Did the facts of the matter change or did perception just change in that short period?

You see it all the time in politics. You see it with celebrities. Why do celebrities care so much when a seemingly false accusation is leveled? Why not just blow it off? Because they know that a huge percentage of people believe what they are told, no matter if it doesn’t seem true or reasonable.

With their huge advertising and PR budgets, major carriers have the ability to change the perception of reality in millions of consumers’ minds.

I wonder why in reality my two prepaid cell phones are saving me over $25 per month over my previous contract phones. I rarely hear stories such as mine.

What I do hear is that prepaid is suitable for low use consumers, credit challenged, or young people. I hear that inexpensive, cool cell phones are not available for those interested in going prepaid, when they are. I even hear people who complain that they have to pay when they use their prepaid plan, when with their $39.99 monthly contract plan they received free minutes. Excuse me people, but you are paying for those “free” minutes in your monthly rate! Someone told me he was spending about $25.00 per month on his prepaid plan, but wasn’t getting any “free” minutes. He didn’t comprehend that he was talking the same amount of minutes for $15 less per month than his previous contract. Man, these mobile phone companies are good. They get people to spend more for less and accept it.

Do yourself a favor. Ignore the messages sent out by the major carriers. Ignore the free phone offers for phones that are never free. Buy yourself a nice prepaid phone from a reputable prepaid company like Cingular, STi Mobile, T-Mobile, Tracfone or Boost Mobile. You will be happy. If not, there is no contract to cancel, so just choose another prepaid company and have a nice day.

With that being said, it does look like prepaid mobile is just starting to gain the attention and maybe respect of the major mobile carriers. It is about time.

Russ Snapper works in marketing for cheapphonecards.com and Deal King

Ringtone makes you alert of the incoming calls and messages in your mobile phone. This is very necessary while there are many mobile phone users in a room. Ringtone has become an important accessory of any mobile phone because it provides quality sound and pleasure to listeners. It has now overtaken the music industry and people like to have each hit sound track as their mobile ringtone.

As there is increased demand for these ringtones people want to get them easily at fewer rates. This has paved way for various websites that provide with cell phone ringtones download services. You can download ringtone for tmobile or any other cell phone service carrier online. For this you need to have compatible software in your mobile phone. Once you download these ringtones, you can easily customize them.

Previously, there used to be a dull beep tone for incoming mobile phone call, then came monotones which used to have better quality sound, and then with the advent of polyphonic tones, truetones and voice tones there was a whole lot of things in store to be used as ringtones.

Today there are polyphonic ringtones, voice tones that could be customized with the voice of your family or dear ones. At the same time, the true tones also resemble voices of different artists, animals and many other that easily attracts ones attention. As such, ringtone defines your personality as a person.

But while you choose a ringtone for your mobile you need to follow some common rules of courtesy. If you like to have any specific kind of ringtone, you should take care of the environment because at some places, it is necessary that you keep the volume of your ringtone low. You should use silent and vibrant phone ringers while you in a meeting or discussion. You can also customize your mobile phone with environment friendly ringtones.

For more information visit our website t-mobile-ringtone.info

Olivia Andrews is a freelance journalist and has written many reviews on subjects such as finance, education, entertainment, music, apparels and mobile phones.

After buying a mobile phone, another difficult task is to choose the best network and plan according to your usage. It sounds easy if you think it this way: go online, select a brand, sign up for a service and purchase your mobile phone. But it is difficult if you want to think at every step so that you don’t end up paying more than you really need to. Looking at different offers, plans and then selecting one can be confusing if you are not sure what you want and you have not explored the market.
So after going through the difficult phase of purchasing your mobile phone, it comes the second phase of choosing the suitable mobile phone network and tariff for your needs and usage. There are so many mobile networks available today like Orange, 3 Mobile, T Mobile, O2, Vodafone, Virgin etc, all claiming to be the best offering cheap line rental tariff plans, free line rentals, half line rentals, free insurance, free handset and attractive mobile phone deals. Mobile networks usually have two kinds of plans: pay as you go phones and contract mobile phone. You just need to look for who is offering better value, offers and deals for your specific requirements. If you are wondering which one would be the best one for you, you need to do a lot of research.

The first step in choosing a network is to find out whether it at least provides coverage for areas in which you use your phone. There is no point in owning a mobile phone if you cannot make or receive calls in it. So make the best choice so that you get the best network services, coverage, plans, call costs and global roaming agreements. Make a list of name of companies, their plans including how many minutes they are giving, how much deposit they need, how long is the contract. If you talk more in the night, consider those plans offering night minutes. Make sure you have the flexibility to change plans. See if the network is offering calls in the same networks at reduced rates.

If you want to use your phone in abroad, pick a network with the greatest amount of roaming agreements which means you have more chances of staying in touch while you are out of the country. Make sure you can make and receive calls on the networks and in the countries you need.

Seek advices from specialist mobile phone stores or people who own a mobile phone for a long time. They can help you recommend a tariff that suits you and your business needs. Most networks have exciting offers, having tariffs that enable you to purchase bundles of minutes in advance. You can take advantage of low rate international or local calls. The most beneficial tariffs are most likely those that let you share minutes across multiple handsets, a great way to reduce costs. While choosing a mobile network, be assured of getting a dedicated customer service so that you can have someone to handle any queries you may have. So get your network service provider only after gaining enough information and getting the best plan which meets your needs.

Britney
Online Mobile Shop UK

“Happy Birthday,” reads the text message on your mobile phone. It’s from your favorite restaurant, and it’s accompanied by an email from the owner, who offers to buy you that appetizer you’ve always loved.

You pass by a poster promoting your favorite band’s upcoming release.

It contains a code, and if you send it via text message (SMS), they’ll give you the inside track on the release date, along with a couple of sample MP3s.

Meanwhile, your local florist texts you a reminder of your sister’s anniversary, and a 15% off discount if you phone in an order to send out a bouquet today.

Personalized, targeted, and, above all else, desired– For these companies, mobile technology didn’t merely offer a chance to get their foot in the door. They were enthusiastically invited in.

If you’re considering making use of today’s mobile phone technology for marketing your business, you’ll find it surprisingly easy to implement. It’s dramatically less expensive than traditional advertising and promotional methods, as well. And, it allows you to target your message precisely to the ones most likely to buy– That means, fewer wasted dollars.

Is it the right tool for your business?
These marketing techniques already have nearly a 15-year track history in many European and Asian countries. Regardless of what type of business you are in, someone is bound to have forged the trail ahead of you.

Generally speaking, these are the primary qualifiers:

If your products or services have pricing tiers that you can easily define; e.g., complimentary appetizer when you order two drinks; a free rose with every flower arrangement you order, etc.

If your customers are likely to have and use current G3 mobile technology.

And chances are they do. Most mobile phones in use are multimedia-capable. A large percentage of these owners use them for checking their email and browsing the Internet. And age doesn’t seem to be a big factor– The market penetration of multi-media phone ownership doesn’t drop off significantly until after age 55– And even that’s respectable, at around 30 to 25%.

The size of your business.

The size has less to do with whether or not you employ these methods, but how best to go about implementing them.

Software applications are available, for those on a budget. They may also be the right choice if some characteristic of your business is so unique it requires you to create a campaign specifically for your operation.

Or you can turn the whole thing over to a mobile application service provider (MASP). It’s likely you’ll even find one that specializes in your particular industry. You’ll be able to choose from a selection of campaigns with a proven track record, and the company can handle everything from launching each promotion to gathering and managing your database of contacts.

MASPs offer a variety of packages, and choosing the right one will depend on how much creative control you want to have, and, of course, your budget.

Why have mobile marketing campaigns proven to be such a success? Industry specialists say it’s because they forge, or strengthen, a relationship between business operators and customers– And the fact that this relationship feels personal is the key.

That means, it builds two-way loyalty between customers and business operators. And it keeps the company’s name fresh in customers’ minds. Given the high expense, and questionable success rate, of traditional advertising, mobile marketing offers methods that are refreshingly inexpensive, and that more than pay for themselves.

Daniel Cavalli is an article writer based in Brisbane Australia. He publishes articles and reports for the Australian Telecommunications Service Provider Telcoblue. http://www.telcoblue.com.au

Back when I got my first mobile phone my only interest was in getting the best cellular phone service and the company perks and the phone’s gadgets didn’t mean that much to me. It was the best reception I was after as well as the most extensive network so I wouldn’t have to worry about losing my cellular phone service in a more remote area.

When it was time to shop around for a new phone and consider a new cellular phone service provider I realized that the difference between them in terms of network quality wasn’t as much as it used to be. For someone like me who travels a lot locally but doesn’t travel the worldor at least care if my phone works when I’m out of the countrythere isn’t a provider who offers an bad connection. While a lot of them are better than the other on paper in one way, the competition is better in another way. In the end, what I have discovered through friends and my own little bit of research, there isn’t really a cell phone network around right now that will ever make phone calls frustrating.

The only service flaw I’ve noticed amongst the different mobile service providers my friends and I have used lately is that one may work better in this basement and the other will work better in that basement. The same thing seems to be true for areas with tunnels and tall buildings. A lot of that is depending on where the network’s towers are located and not always which one is more powerful. My last cellular phone service provider boasted the most powerful network but my friend’s phone still picked up in places mine wouldn’t.

So now I look more at the bonuses I get with each package. Things like how the minutes are billed and clocked and what kinds of data services are provided have become more important to me. While basic things like voice mail, caller id and call waiting have become nearly standard amongst cellular phone service packages, there are other things that make one network stand out above the next.

The cellular phone service that I’m now on, for instance, didn’t offer me free months of picture messaging as an introductory offer like their competition was offering. In the long run though, I discovered that their picture messaging cost less and after the free months would have been up, that cost was the most important thing. A few years back this would have seemed like an insignificant point to me, but with cameras being on all the phones now it appeared to be something I would use.

With my business life becoming more wired I’ve found that emails are growing more important to me as a need. I looked into things like text messaging and internet access from different cellular phone services and determined that, again, there wasn’t a lot of difference in how they operated. The company I went with, however, offered a better rate for data transfers.

What I’ve wound up with is a cellular phone service that is on a network technically inferior to the rest in town. But it offers the features I like to use the most at the best possible price and I haven’t had a single problem yet with my reception.

Christopher M. Luck has an extensive background in working exclusively with the top cell phone services in the industry and is now offering his free professional cell phone advice to the public. If you are at all interested in Christopher’s personal technology health advice, tips, or secrets, you can visit his technology blog

Phones have become a necessary part of life. If we are without one we feel like we are missing something. Phones have come a long way from the place they were only a few decades ago. Now, just about every family owns a cell phone. In some cases, we no longer have landline phones but just cell phones. Families stay connected with cell phone packages. There is more advertising for cell phones than there is for just about anything else! But, is the cell phone a better choice over the landline? Here are several things that you should consider not only about this but also about choosing the right company to go with.

Landline phones are those that are grounded. We plug them into outlets in our homes and offices. Cell phones are mobile, and have the ability to make calls from almost any area. Traditionally, landlines were the only type of phone used in the home. Now, more people are switching over to only have cell phones. But, is this a good thing? Cell phones are often more expensive. Mobility is expensive. But, landlines lock you down and do not give you the freedom to call from anywhere. Sure, cordless phones give some freedom, but you still have an approximate area you need to stay in. Cells have the ability to do virtually all that landlines do from making calls to three way calling to call waiting. They also have additional features. Things like email and internet access are among the hottest new features. Getting a text message is one of the largest draws right now. Landlines can’t compete with these features. But, one good quality about landlines is that they are there in an emergency. Your cell needs to be charged while a landline phone is able to make calls as long as the phone company hasn’t gone out.

We really didn’t help you make a decision, did we? Perhaps the only real factor in this battle is to have the prices broken down. First, let’s talk about getting a good deal on a cell phone though. Before purchasing one, make sure you have the best rate plan. You will need to break this into an apple to apple comparison. For example, either look at the flat rate plans or the minute to minute breakdown. Also, look at the weekend charges, roaming charging, and long distance charges as well. Then, you can make an informed decision.

In order to decide on the landline versus cell phone, you will need to compare your need for features and convenience with that of having a lower price. The landline will be cheaper but can not keep up with the latest and great technology. What matters to you is which option in phones you will need to choose from.

Tia Jackson
Phones Directory