Saturday 9 February 2002

Pic of the day: Girls always have something to talk about. While I slay monsters, make armor, and occasionally raise the dead. All over the phone line, of course. (Screenshot from The Sims, best selling game of the last two years and actually quite good.)

Telelife

Got my phone bill the other day. Kroner 3900, or ca $433. It's more than usual but not the worst I have seen. Then again, it could have been so much better, if only we had ADSL here. But we don't. They have it in the city, or at least parts of it, such as where my friend "Amani" lives. (Well, she was alive last I saw her. It's suddenly been a while.) I'll certainly calculate the price difference in if I look for a new place to live. (And I probably will, sometime this year, after the rent went up again. The landlord is getting greedy. Not to mention old. But that's yet another story.)

The problem is that Telenor, the largest phone company, is dragging their feet regarding ADSL. What's worse, they are dragging the feet of their competitors. (Now that's an irresistible metaphor!) As a former monopoly, they own almost all the infrastructure. They have the copper cables into almost all Norwegian homes, and phone centrals scattered all over the place. Competitors will either have to buy into those, or do it all over again while Telenor uses their existing, long since paid off equipment to dump prices and kill the competition. And why would Telenor offer ADSL when they can earn much more from the old technology? They have to make a symbolic effort so politicians don't get suspicious, but the longer they can drag it out, the more money they will earn.

***

The difference between the fixed line market and the mobile phone market is striking. Mobile phones ("cell phone" in American) arrived in Norway in force only after the fall of socialism. The monopoly was dismantled, and a competitor started to build out base stations side by side with Telenor. Needless to say, Telenor restructured their pricing such that they could use their old monopoly to finance the new competitive market. But even so, the competition is real. And most notably, as long as there is competition, they cannot raise the prices back up.

As a result, there are now more mobile phones than fixed line phones. Children from the age of 11 usually have their own mobile phone. You see them on the subway, you see them on the bus. You see them lying down with you, and you see them waking up. I think the shower is the only place people don't have their mobile phone, but I may be wrong - I don't see into many showers. I know there is a waterproof model around for beach life.

The new trend is handsfree (which is supposed to be safer for radiation, and certainly more convenient). More and more often, you see people walking down the street with their hands empty or in their pockets, staring into space and talking to someone you can't see. Five years ago you would have assumed they were psychiatric patients in acute need of medical help. Now you assume they have a handsfree mobile phone. Most models still need you to dial the number, or at least pick it from a list; but voice control is seeping in.

Oh, and I have a mobile phone too. But I don't use it every month by far. Mostly it's SuperWoman who uses it the few times a year when we are out together. (She lives in Sweden so hasn't a Norwegian mobile phone.) It certainly looks convenient when you're used to it. Each summer there are people in the street hailing me, wanting me to buy a fantastic mobile phone cheap. (Not stolen stuff - the thieves are more circumpspect - these are students working for the competing phone companies.) My mobile phone works OK, though it is old and heavy and clumsy and primitive by today's standard. I could certainly afford a new. I just don't have anyone to talk to - or rather to talk to me. I prefer to listen. (Not that you would guess that from my journal.)

***

I guess there is a magic limit in each person's mind. When the price falls below that, it becomes negligible. Never mind that it adds up over time. As long as it only costs 10 cent to send a text message (like an e-mail, but on the mobile phone) people will gladly send hundreds of them. This is really big business here in Scandinavia (and in Japan too, if I remember correctly, even more than here). There is a virtual network of young people messaging each other all day long, and much of the night. The parent generation has been dragged into this too, as their children SMS them (Short Message System, I think) to tell that they did not catch the bus because they were too long in the library. (Actually they were snuggling with a friend, of course.) Once you get used to it, SMS becomes a way of thinking.

But again, I don't have anyone to send me messages. Waah! Poor widdle me, I don't have any friendses! Waah! Actually, I have no idea what it would be good for. I certainly don't miss it. Looks like an atheist's substitute for prayer to me ... you need to know that there is someone who thinks of you all the time, even if you can't see them.

Not that I am entirely solitary myself. You have this journal which I tend to write every day (or two every other day at worst). And you have the phone bills. The biggest being the one for Internet (today, for instance, was spent almost entirely in Albion). And there's a smaller for international calls, where I use the cheaper provider in that area, Tele2. They are so cheap now that it's negligible to call even to the USA, much less Sweden. And soon it is Valentine's day again.

Happy phoning everyone.