Back in 2001, I lost my cell phone in Hersheypark. I guess I didn’t lose it as much as I put it down on a bench next to me and forgot to take it with me when I left. No one ever turned it in, because even though 99% of people are good, the other 1% are pieces of garbage. And they, for some reason, are always the ones who find the things you lose in an amusement park.

I was mad because I lost all of my contacts, but the joke was on whomever thought taking my phone would be a good idea. I didn’t have any kind of calling plan – that cell phone was prepaid, and it only had about 50 seconds left of talking time on it.

Prepaid phones still exist, though I don’t know anyone other than my grandma who still has one. But this story harkened me back to a time when cell phones were still a mystery, and when leaving my home state of New Jersey for the greener pastures of Pennsylvania made a strange little word pop up on the screen of my phone.

But before I get into that, I should explain to younger readers the idea of “long-distance calling”. Long story short? If you lived somewhere, it was really expensive to call somewhere far from you, even if it was in the US.

See, before everyone had a cell phone, and before cable companies starting offering internet and voice service, you had to pay for your phone calls by the minute. I remember being six or seven and talking on the phone to my grandma (the same one who now has a prepaid cell phone) who lived in the Bronx, and my dad yelling at me to hang up because I was “running up the phone bill”.

You don’t pay a premium for these calls anymore because of the way they are handled. On landlines, the sound travels through cables digitally instead of through copper wires, and that’s a lot cheaper. On cell phones, however, it’s a little different.

When I first got a cell phone, long-distance rates still applied. You could pay more and get unlimited calling to anywhere in the country, or you could spend a little less and get unlimited calling strictly in your local area.

Since I was still in college and I didn’t know anyone who lived more than five minutes away from me, I opted for the cheaper plan. But as soon as I entered Pennsylvania, I found that my phone started “roaming”.

I thought I only got hit with long-distance when I called out of my zone, not when I physically was outside of my zone. Roaming was the worst, and it pretty much guaranteed I wouldn’t talk to anyone that wasn’t with me when I traveled.

Local plans aren’t really a thing anymore with cell phones, at least not for smartphones. The plans are more money, obviously, but I don’t mind it. It’s nice to be able to call home when I travel somewhere without worrying about a $600 phone bill.

Hopefully I’ll see a phone in my lifetime with unlimited international calling. Not because I have many friends or relatives abroad, but because once we can do that, we’re calling space next. Oh yeah.



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