My smart phone wasn’t working correctly the other day, so I did what most of you would do: I looked at the signal strength bars to see if I had proper coverage, and I looked at the battery level to see if I had enough juice. That’s about all we do with cell phones today, other than the occasional reboot, of course. The complications come when we opt to purchase a new phone, but that is a column for another day.
Cell phone bills are much simpler today, too. Sure, there are plenty of charges on the statement that we wonder about, but at least they are consistent now. Not too long ago, we would be reviewing our cell phone bills for various amounts of roaming charges, data charges, texting fees, etc.
I remember when text messages were about 10 cents each. I sometimes miss those days, especially when I am on a group text of 12 and all the others feel a need to “like” each person’s comments. Enough already. I knew these texting charges irritated my friend Darren back in the day, so each time he would text me I would reply with “thanks for the message,” and then a “no, seriously, thank you,” and then a final “I really appreciate it.” He didn’t send me many text messages after that.
I used to receive our cell phone bill in the mail and send a summary to each member of our family who was on the plan, pointing out who used the most minutes, the most data and the most text messages. It was not a victory to be at the top of the list, especially when we had overage charges.
I probably did this phone bill review because I remember my parents doing the same with our landline bill as a kid. We did not have many long distance charges, so when we did, each one was scrutinized. I remember my dad once asking me if I made a call to Memphis, Tennessee. I didn’t recall doing so and told him that. He wrote a note on the bill stating that he did not make this call and deducted that amount from his phone bill. I wonder how long the phone company kept billing him for that 42 cents? Later, I remembered that I did make that call, and I recall Memphis, Tennessee, because of the Chuck Berry song with the line, “Help me, information, give me Memphis, Tennessee.”
Anyone remember the Nights and Weekends plan, when it was cheaper to call during those “off peak” times? Some variations of this still exist. Did the phone lines really get clogged up with too many calls during the day? That never made sense to me. Rates were so much cheaper on nights and weekends that most everyone made family calls at that time. If you received a family member’s call during the week, you had a feeling it must be horrible news.
And finally, have you tried explaining “calling collect” to a young person today? Give that a try, and you will surely get some strange looks.
Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707