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michinkorea
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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 Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 2:44 am Post subject: How does my cell phone work? |
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I've never had a cell phone before (I know, I'm the only person in the world, but I'm cheap..). I got one given to me from a teacher who was leaving but I'm not sure on the details.
It has English menus so that's fine and it's pay as you go. I put 5000 won on it just to start but I have no idea how much it costs per minute. Do I have to pay if someone calls me? If I use a phone card to call Canada, do I have to pay per minute for the local dial up number? How much would it costs on my cell to call Canada?
Thanks a lot for the help. |
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gang ah jee
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:50 am Post subject: |
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I don't know the answers to your questions, except to say that 5000 won might give you enough airtime to order a pizza or two. I can give you some advice though.
You topic isn't controversial enough so nobody feels interested in replying. Try posting something like 'Korean Cellphone Companies Are Racist' or something. It'll be more fun. Trust me. |
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ThePoet
Joined: 15 May 2004
Location: No longer in Korea - just lurking here
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:01 am Post subject: |
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A cellphone is basically a duplex radio. Duplex means it transmits on one frequency and receives on a different one. It accomplishes this by the use of repeater towers which allow up to 200 paired channels to be received/transmitted simultaneously through an antenna system. The concept of duplex radio was pioneered by W0ADK, a ham radio operator back in the mid 60's as integrated circuitry was starting to be used.
Nowadays, the circuitry is all smt (surface mount technology) and IC (integrated circuitry). This has allowed power output of around 250 mW per cellphone unit, and a tower outpit of around 5 watts per channel.
As an added feature to the 2nd generation cellphone units, there is now a feature known as channel hopping. This means the phones digitally change frequencies every few seconds so they are more difficult to use scanners on. Many cellphones are also digital signals which are encoded and decoded by both the host and remote units.
I hope this helps your understanding of how your cellphone works.
Poet |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:30 pm Post subject: Re: How does my cell phone work? |
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| michinkorea wrote: |
I've never had a cell phone before (I know, I'm the only person in the world, but I'm cheap..). I got one given to me from a teacher who was leaving but I'm not sure on the details.
It has English menus so that's fine and it's pay as you go. I put 5000 won on it just to start but I have no idea how much it costs per minute. Do I have to pay if someone calls me? If I use a phone card to call Canada, do I have to pay per minute for the local dial up number? How much would it costs on my cell to call Canada?
Thanks a lot for the help. |
Your phone rate is about 600 won per minute so 5000 won will give you about 8 or 9 minutes.
If you don't use the time up within a month or buy more time, it will disappear. You have to put 10k won per month to keep it open and working.
With some phone cards you also pay for the local call. With some you don't. I don't use them so I can't tell you which is which or which is best.
You do not pay for incoming calls or sms / txt messages.
Cell costs to Canada vary depending on if you dial direct or use a phone card. They also vary depending on which service provider you use.
If you want to make a direct call to Canada you have to dial a trunk line first. For example: 002-1-(area code)-(number)
Different trunk lines you can use include:
002 (daycom)
007
00700
00388 (LG)
and they all have different rates.
Hope that answered all your questions. |
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dogshed
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:51 am Post subject: |
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| ThePoet wrote: |
A cellphone is basically a duplex radio. Duplex means it transmits on one frequency and receives on a different one. It accomplishes this by the use of repeater towers which allow up to 200 paired channels to be received/transmitted simultaneously through an antenna system. The concept of duplex radio was pioneered by W0ADK, a ham radio operator back in the mid 60's as integrated circuitry was starting to be used.
Nowadays, the circuitry is all smt (surface mount technology) and IC (integrated circuitry). This has allowed power output of around 250 mW per cellphone unit, and a tower outpit of around 5 watts per channel.
As an added feature to the 2nd generation cellphone units, there is now a feature known as channel hopping. This means the phones digitally change frequencies every few seconds so they are more difficult to use scanners on. Many cellphones are also digital signals which are encoded and decoded by both the host and remote units.
I hope this helps your understanding of how your cellphone works.
Poet |
Actually it probably uses some kind of time division mutiplexing in addition to spread spectrum. Besides using techniques to allow more than one channel on the same frequency it also adjusts the power level so you only connect to one tower and then hands off to another tower when you move. This works well when you are on the ground. In the air you can be mostly the same distance from many towers. This is why it is illegal to use a cell phone in an airplane unless it is in a low power mode that only connects to a cell in a commercial airliner.
And of course frequency hopping was invented by Hedey Lemar and some guy who wrote a book on mammary glands. -Jeff |
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dogshed
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:53 am Post subject: |
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| I saw some other threads that suggested LG phones if you want a plan good for foreigners. -Jeff |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:41 am Post subject: Re: How does my cell phone work? |
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| michinkorea wrote: |
I've never had a cell phone before (I know, I'm the only person in the world, but I'm cheap..). I got one given to me from a teacher who was leaving but I'm not sure on the details.
It has English menus so that's fine and it's pay as you go. I put 5000 won on it just to start but I have no idea how much it costs per minute. Do I have to pay if someone calls me? If I use a phone card to call Canada, do I have to pay per minute for the local dial up number? How much would it costs on my cell to call Canada?
Thanks a lot for the help. |
Do I have to pay if someone calls me? Nope!
If I use a phone card to call Canada, do I have to pay per minute for the local dial up number? Some you do, some you don't. If it's 080, that's a "toll free" number...but sometimes you have to pay.
SMS/text messages are usually 5-10 won each....not really worth worrying about! |
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