DBWI: They invented a phone that you could walk around with?

I was thinking if these things did exist would they be full coverage?

How far could you go with them and would their be areas where they didn't work?

Depends on which frequencies you use. There are some frequencies which allow for long-range communication to happen. That is probably what I think could happen. Ever wonder why police radios always seem to prefer a short range? Of course, there could be areas where it might not work - remember, even the TV networks don't have full coverage of the entire country - but that would be minor, since anything involving radio frequencies would have those problems. To avoid that, I could probably think of placing antennae on top of mountains and on top of tall buildings.

What good would they do then? You'd still have to use a payphone.

What about those areas that don't have payphones, let alone telephone service?
 
Talk about a dystopic future, you would have people always expecting to be able to be in contact with you. Just imagine your employer wanting you to be on call 24/7. No more pretending to be out when someone wants you to come in and cover someone else's shift or work overtime.

well, nobody says you would have to own one of these phones... you could stick with 'normal' on-your-wall phones, if you wanted to. And there's one good use for these portable phones: they'd be very handy if you broke down driving somewhere out in the middle of nowhere....
 

Hashasheen

Banned
What an awful idea! Walking phones would completely ruin every horror movie ever made. You know the film, Scream? Where the killer hides Post-It notes around the house saying "I'm going to kill you" etc. How would that be if they could just simply pick up a radio phone and call the police?
OOC: i'll admit i lol'ed big time:D
 
Come on, our palm held computer works in a same way a handphone would have worked.

And you can actually call and talk to someone using skype using your laptop, desktop and palm held computers you know.

And we all know how common palm held Coms are anyway.

Instead of having a phone that acts like a computer, in real life we have a computer that acts like a phone.
 
Come on, our palm held computer works in a same way a handphone would have worked.

And you can actually call and talk to someone using skype using your laptop, desktop and palm held computers you know.

And we all know how common palm held Coms are anyway.

Instead of having a phone that acts like a computer, in real life we have a computer that acts like a phone.

You know, I've always wondered why more people don't use Skype on their palm held computers. It's not that slow...maybe it's because you have to be near a Wi-Fi access point to do so?

BTW, I read in the New York Times today that a joint Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian government venture to build a region-wide Wi-Fi network has been announced. One of the main features planned is free phone service on your palm held computer.
 
well, nobody says you would have to own one of these phones... you could stick with 'normal' on-your-wall phones, if you wanted to. And there's one good use for these portable phones: they'd be very handy if you broke down driving somewhere out in the middle of nowhere....

You wouldn't HAVE to have one but how long do think it would be before only people with portable phones could take certain jobs? Pressure would be increasingly put on employees to be available 24/7 or someone who would be will be employed in there place.
 
You wouldn't HAVE to have one but how long do think it would be before only people with portable phones could take certain jobs? Pressure would be increasingly put on employees to be available 24/7 or someone who would be will be employed in there place.

that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Require someone to have a portable phone before you hire them? Yeah, I could see lawyers smacking their lips over this one...
 
that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Require someone to have a portable phone before you hire them? Yeah, I could see lawyers smacking their lips over this one...

You have to have things like a fixed address to have a job, I'm sure that big business could get such changes to the law pushed through if they wanted to.
 
You have to have things like a fixed address to have a job, I'm sure that big business could get such changes to the law pushed through if they wanted to.

that's a bit different than requiring a portable phone... the latter would requiring you to have a certain type of phone... not any phone at all, a specific type! Lawyers would make mincemeat out of such a law....
 
Top