( 
)abstract: enhanced 911 (e911) myths and false senses of security including public safety issues. stolen phones and federal jurisdiction of, and transportation of stolen merchandise over state lines. FCC regulations and misinformation from the service providers and big box stores. beware of the retail outlets and mall stores and always require an ESN and require that sale is contingent of recieving that specific ESN or serial number. the economics of keeping both a cell phone and landline. cellular signal formats or waveforms used in the states and GSM use internationally.
Stolen merchandise: don't end up with stolen merchandise, and don't get left holding the bag, as posession of stolen merchandise is a misdemeanor in all 50 states and/or knowingly recieving stolen merchandise is as well. also, bear in mind that transportation [which includes mail / shipping] of stolen merchandise over state lines becomes a federal offense. reading feedback and being aprised of stolen merchandise constitutes your knowledge that you may be recieving stolen merchandise.
FCC and contracts: ebay has become a great place to thwart the myriad of misinformation from the cell phone stores in the malls and such. most all of the time, any cell phone store will lead you to believe that you need to keep re-signing your contract with your service provider. according to the federal communiction comission (FCC) it is not required and illegal to tell someone they must have a current contract at all times. the fcc states that the provider shall provide service on a month to month basis. also, if you are an old rate plan, they also must grandfather that plan. i have not had a contract with verizon since 1998 and have maintained the same account and phone number ever since. the other thing to remember, is those stores get a nice kick back from the service providers for NEW service. therefore if you are with the same provider sold by the store, they will try to get you to change your number to maximize their comission. if it's an existing account with the same provider, their comission is half of the new account. after lots of resistance, in '98 i had verizon swing over my old analog number to a digital phone. the store in the mall said it was impossible. i called verizon and they told me the contrary and then schooled me on the comission problem. they then refused to activate the phone for me. i then called verizon from the counter, then in turn called the merchant and told them they had to. they dragged their feet and took them 3 days to activate the phone.
i have never set foot in one of those stores since 1998. everything is done over fax, email, or mail / UPS.
if you have a problem in the store, a threat of filing FCC form # 75 - complaint, will get the immediate attention of the store manager and most all problems go away at that point. when that complaint is filed, the company must spend many man-hours answering the complaint to the government. the service providers try to avoid this at all costs. this form can be found on the government's fcc home page.
International travel, GSM is what the rest of the world uses. not CDMA. kind of like the betamax quandry [vs. VHS]. you can use an AT&T / Cingular phone over seas, but the rates must be reviewed carefully against your plan and service provider. do so before you leave. i travel a lot overseas as does my business partner. i keep a japanese NTT phone and my business partner keeps an italian TelItalia phone. it's cheaper to pay for both.
analyze your usage. if you are on the phone a lot during the day, you may be better served keeping your landline or some sort of VoIP service. given my work from home and talk time on the phone, it's cheaper for me to pay for unlimited access on the landline and keep the cell phone than just the cell by itself. usually if you are talking more than 1500 min / month, you are around the break even point. there are several that complain of rediculus cell bills, and they usually can be cut to 1/3 of what they were just by subscribing to a landline. also, the best international rates are only available via landlines and VoIP. international calling from the states to the rest of the world is very costly.
consider also your public safety requirements, please read carefully: some homeowners insurance policies now are starting to mandate a landline from the local exchange carrier. check your insurance rates and policy information, you may get a discount greater than the cost of the landline just by keeping it. given the recent stories in the press of people calling 911 and the police / EMS not able to find the person until the cleaning crew finds them monday morning dead. the liability of not being able to effectively summon the police / EMS is becoming too high. in addition, more and more homeowners assosiations are also requiring landlines as well. if you have small children, elderly, diabetics, etc, you will want to keep your old fashoned land line, not any VoIP technology. to find out more, call your local police dept, or fire dept to ask if their public safety answering point can identify where cell phones or VoIP phones are calling in from. don't ask the sales people in the big box stores, they only have a comission in mind, not your safety and well being. they don't know, even though they say they do. also, the location technology in your cell phone is also a source of a false sense of security. you need to see about 4-5 satellites to get the resolution of a cell phone location down to a 100 meter (yard) spherical radius. if you are inside in a concrete building, you will be lucky to see 2 satellites, therefore a larger place to search for you. old fashoned landlines, since they don't move are documented to be wired to a physical address.
in the end, if you need to call 911, always do it from a old fashoned landline, or payphone. the cell should only be the backup item.
some municipalities have a documentation process for traditional landlines only, not VoIP, such that you can document diabetes, heart condition or any other critical illness with the public safety answering point (911 center) so that if there is no one on the phone after a 911 call is made, they will break the door down if they cannot call back and get someone on the phone. they will not do so for VoIP or cell 911 calls as the likeliehood of breaking down the wrong door is very very high. to make e911 work, there is an automatic number identification process coupled with a location database that will display your physical location on the screen of the e911 operator but only from a landline.
an analog cell tower in a rural area can cover as much as 30 square miles. a digital CDMA tower covers less area, but in a densely populated area there are many doors to knock on to find you if you cannot speak. also given the geometry of the situation, the 100 meter (yard) radius, is not a circle, but a sphereical radius (ball) so not only 100 meters to the left and right, but you must also consider up and down, and that can be 7-8 apartments above and below you to check in addition to your floor.
so if you meet the safety requirements and usage requirements...
the ebay experience: there are a great number of cell phones up on ebay. most sellers are indeed legitimate and/or small shops. there are however a few that sell a large volume, ie the law of large numbers protects their feedback rating, that are trying to claim ignorance to poor / substandard / stolen products. one of which to be well aware of is phones2own. read all their feedback and their belligerant responses in trying resolve disputes. they are no better on the phone. they knowingly sell stolen merchandise and put the responsibility on the purchaser to verify that the seller is not selling stolen merchandise and claim ignorance. another to be aware of is planetinstock, he usually leaves a disconnected phone number in ebay's database. as they have sold substandard handsets that verizon refuses to activate. actually verizon stated that these phones were a mistake and were pulled due to quality control issues and should have never resurfaced and were to have been destroyed by verizon. verizon wireless corporate in new jersey stated based on the serial numbers that someone went dumpster diving. some of these people sell a great deal of stuff, but do need to make a better effort in ensuring the quality of their merchandise. i do however recognize that they cannot flush out all defects in the electronics, but they do need to take responsibily for ensuring that they are not selling stolen merchandise. i also consider failure to check the origin given a high rate of stolen merchandise is a responsibility of the seller and constitutes knowledge of posessing and distributing stolen merchandise.
both these sellers are belligerant and give the better part of the honest ebay community a bad name. if you get a bad feeling after making contact with any merchant, go with your gut reaction and move on to a different seller. i called phones2own and asked about the stolen merchandise problem, they stated that they don't have one and it was a fluke. i then checked back and found feedback in the week since i spoke to them and found more negative feedback regarding more stolen items. again, they tried to bully the buyer, which can be reviewed in their negative feedback.
insist on recieving the ESN prior to bidding. call the service provider and verify that it's not stolen. if you then clearly get the merchant to state in writing that they are selling you that explicit s/n and require no substitutions. if you recieve a stolen phone after checking, call the seller and report it to the police to protect yourself and if you get a hard time from the seller, pass along all emails to the police as well, and of course as always, report it to safeharbor on ebay.
Stolen merchandise: don't end up with stolen merchandise, and don't get left holding the bag, as posession of stolen merchandise is a misdemeanor in all 50 states and/or knowingly recieving stolen merchandise is as well. also, bear in mind that transportation [which includes mail / shipping] of stolen merchandise over state lines becomes a federal offense. reading feedback and being aprised of stolen merchandise constitutes your knowledge that you may be recieving stolen merchandise.
FCC and contracts: ebay has become a great place to thwart the myriad of misinformation from the cell phone stores in the malls and such. most all of the time, any cell phone store will lead you to believe that you need to keep re-signing your contract with your service provider. according to the federal communiction comission (FCC) it is not required and illegal to tell someone they must have a current contract at all times. the fcc states that the provider shall provide service on a month to month basis. also, if you are an old rate plan, they also must grandfather that plan. i have not had a contract with verizon since 1998 and have maintained the same account and phone number ever since. the other thing to remember, is those stores get a nice kick back from the service providers for NEW service. therefore if you are with the same provider sold by the store, they will try to get you to change your number to maximize their comission. if it's an existing account with the same provider, their comission is half of the new account. after lots of resistance, in '98 i had verizon swing over my old analog number to a digital phone. the store in the mall said it was impossible. i called verizon and they told me the contrary and then schooled me on the comission problem. they then refused to activate the phone for me. i then called verizon from the counter, then in turn called the merchant and told them they had to. they dragged their feet and took them 3 days to activate the phone.
i have never set foot in one of those stores since 1998. everything is done over fax, email, or mail / UPS.
if you have a problem in the store, a threat of filing FCC form # 75 - complaint, will get the immediate attention of the store manager and most all problems go away at that point. when that complaint is filed, the company must spend many man-hours answering the complaint to the government. the service providers try to avoid this at all costs. this form can be found on the government's fcc home page.
International travel, GSM is what the rest of the world uses. not CDMA. kind of like the betamax quandry [vs. VHS]. you can use an AT&T / Cingular phone over seas, but the rates must be reviewed carefully against your plan and service provider. do so before you leave. i travel a lot overseas as does my business partner. i keep a japanese NTT phone and my business partner keeps an italian TelItalia phone. it's cheaper to pay for both.
analyze your usage. if you are on the phone a lot during the day, you may be better served keeping your landline or some sort of VoIP service. given my work from home and talk time on the phone, it's cheaper for me to pay for unlimited access on the landline and keep the cell phone than just the cell by itself. usually if you are talking more than 1500 min / month, you are around the break even point. there are several that complain of rediculus cell bills, and they usually can be cut to 1/3 of what they were just by subscribing to a landline. also, the best international rates are only available via landlines and VoIP. international calling from the states to the rest of the world is very costly.
consider also your public safety requirements, please read carefully: some homeowners insurance policies now are starting to mandate a landline from the local exchange carrier. check your insurance rates and policy information, you may get a discount greater than the cost of the landline just by keeping it. given the recent stories in the press of people calling 911 and the police / EMS not able to find the person until the cleaning crew finds them monday morning dead. the liability of not being able to effectively summon the police / EMS is becoming too high. in addition, more and more homeowners assosiations are also requiring landlines as well. if you have small children, elderly, diabetics, etc, you will want to keep your old fashoned land line, not any VoIP technology. to find out more, call your local police dept, or fire dept to ask if their public safety answering point can identify where cell phones or VoIP phones are calling in from. don't ask the sales people in the big box stores, they only have a comission in mind, not your safety and well being. they don't know, even though they say they do. also, the location technology in your cell phone is also a source of a false sense of security. you need to see about 4-5 satellites to get the resolution of a cell phone location down to a 100 meter (yard) spherical radius. if you are inside in a concrete building, you will be lucky to see 2 satellites, therefore a larger place to search for you. old fashoned landlines, since they don't move are documented to be wired to a physical address.
in the end, if you need to call 911, always do it from a old fashoned landline, or payphone. the cell should only be the backup item.
some municipalities have a documentation process for traditional landlines only, not VoIP, such that you can document diabetes, heart condition or any other critical illness with the public safety answering point (911 center) so that if there is no one on the phone after a 911 call is made, they will break the door down if they cannot call back and get someone on the phone. they will not do so for VoIP or cell 911 calls as the likeliehood of breaking down the wrong door is very very high. to make e911 work, there is an automatic number identification process coupled with a location database that will display your physical location on the screen of the e911 operator but only from a landline.
an analog cell tower in a rural area can cover as much as 30 square miles. a digital CDMA tower covers less area, but in a densely populated area there are many doors to knock on to find you if you cannot speak. also given the geometry of the situation, the 100 meter (yard) radius, is not a circle, but a sphereical radius (ball) so not only 100 meters to the left and right, but you must also consider up and down, and that can be 7-8 apartments above and below you to check in addition to your floor.
so if you meet the safety requirements and usage requirements...
the ebay experience: there are a great number of cell phones up on ebay. most sellers are indeed legitimate and/or small shops. there are however a few that sell a large volume, ie the law of large numbers protects their feedback rating, that are trying to claim ignorance to poor / substandard / stolen products. one of which to be well aware of is phones2own. read all their feedback and their belligerant responses in trying resolve disputes. they are no better on the phone. they knowingly sell stolen merchandise and put the responsibility on the purchaser to verify that the seller is not selling stolen merchandise and claim ignorance. another to be aware of is planetinstock, he usually leaves a disconnected phone number in ebay's database. as they have sold substandard handsets that verizon refuses to activate. actually verizon stated that these phones were a mistake and were pulled due to quality control issues and should have never resurfaced and were to have been destroyed by verizon. verizon wireless corporate in new jersey stated based on the serial numbers that someone went dumpster diving. some of these people sell a great deal of stuff, but do need to make a better effort in ensuring the quality of their merchandise. i do however recognize that they cannot flush out all defects in the electronics, but they do need to take responsibily for ensuring that they are not selling stolen merchandise. i also consider failure to check the origin given a high rate of stolen merchandise is a responsibility of the seller and constitutes knowledge of posessing and distributing stolen merchandise.
both these sellers are belligerant and give the better part of the honest ebay community a bad name. if you get a bad feeling after making contact with any merchant, go with your gut reaction and move on to a different seller. i called phones2own and asked about the stolen merchandise problem, they stated that they don't have one and it was a fluke. i then checked back and found feedback in the week since i spoke to them and found more negative feedback regarding more stolen items. again, they tried to bully the buyer, which can be reviewed in their negative feedback.
insist on recieving the ESN prior to bidding. call the service provider and verify that it's not stolen. if you then clearly get the merchant to state in writing that they are selling you that explicit s/n and require no substitutions. if you recieve a stolen phone after checking, call the seller and report it to the police to protect yourself and if you get a hard time from the seller, pass along all emails to the police as well, and of course as always, report it to safeharbor on ebay.
Guide created: 12/27/06 (updated 05/23/09)
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