"home zone" functionality

[Alexey Feldgendler]

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:47:54 +0200, Matthias Lohr <matthias_e_lohr at web.de>  
wrote:

> I didn't find an answer to my question. I had a look at the wish list  
> for the FreeRunner and wanted to add a software feature but wasn't  
> allowed to edit the page so I'm writing it in this mailing list.
> I'm german and using o2. It offers the so called "Homezone" which is a  
> area you can define the center. When in this area (depending on GSM  
> cells) you can give and receive calls with a additionaly provided fixed  
> line number at lower charge. So my question is: is this feature already  
> in the todo list? Since Vodafone and T-Mobile is offering an equivalent  
> service for about one or two years now I think that it would be worth to  
> implement this.

This seems like a feature of the network, not of the phone, and doesn't  
require any special support from the phone.

And a quite strange feature, frankly. I'm not sure I understand the  
advantage of having one more number that only works sometimes, while in  
reality I strive for quite the opposite: having just one number that I can  
always be reached at, instead of having to tell people my home/office/etc  
numbers.

This location-based approach is also quite counter to the current trend:  
with the modern technologies, it matters less and less where you  
physically are. It started with the very concept of a mobile phone and  
later continued with GSM roaming. These days some countries, like Norway,  
remove area codes and establish the same rate for calling any phone in the  
country. Finally, various VoIP technologies make it completely irrelevant  
where you are as long as you have an internet connection.

This "Homezone" offer looks like a marketing trick to encourage people to  
talk slightly more and squeeze another penny out of them; it doesn't add  
any value and is, in fact, a way of selling air. It will eventually die  
along with the death of the very concept of "home phone".


-- 
Alexey Feldgendler <alexey at feldgendler.ru>
[ICQ: 115226275] http://feldgendler.livejournal.com