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| Title: Pocketmail in Europe |
| Posted By: David Lineberger |
| E-mail: david@applink.net |
| Date: 10/19/1999 at 19:14:44 |
Message:I purchased my Pocketmail unit for the express purpose of using it on a 3 week vacation in Europe. I wish that I could say that it was a good experience. Only about 50% of the time could I use it through the hotel phones. I used both the hotel selected long distance service and AT&T, but many times it could not "hear" my unit. I had better luck with pay phones. However, on many phones in Europe the mouthpiece is curved at such an angle that the pocketmail device could not form a close physical connection with the receiver. I even went to a drugstore and purchased a sponge, cutting a hole in it and using that as a bridge between the pocketmail and the phone receiver. This helped a lot, but still was useless in England using British Telecom pay phones.I called Pocketmail early into the trip, and got their special international phone number. I could see no improvement using that over the regular number.I traveled in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, England, and Scotland. In each country there were good experiences and bad ones. I seriously think that Sharp and others selling this device need to offer a clip-on acoustic coupler to fit phones in Europe. I also would appreciate a list on the net of the most successful combinations of phone companies and types of phones so that those trying to use pocketmail would not waste large sums of money trying to get something to work.One other note: I found out about half way into my trip that AT&T charges a $4.00 international access fee and $2.50 a minute for the first minute. That made each 1 minute phone call $6.50. Most of my successfull calls using hotel phones or pay phones were under $2.00, many as low as 50 cents - something to think about!
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