New phones

I have a new cordless phone and a new mobile phone – but for different reasons.

My cordless phone at home is so old the battery now lasts only 15 minutes or so if speaking on it, and only a few hours away from the cradle without use.  Even worse when it decides to die it gives, oh somewhere between a millisecond and a nanosecond of warning.  So I am talking to someone, and then click and I am gone.  It used to beep for 30 seconds before dying.

So long overdue for the new cordless phone.

The mobile phone replacement is for a different reason.  I left my phone charger in India (for my Telecom Nokia, not my Vodafone Blackberry).  Now I could have purchased a new power cord, but I was past my contracted period and could upgrade my phone for free, so I did.  I had actually been putting off doing so for the best part of a year, so it was a good catalyst.

The very old Nokia 3865 (I think I had it when I left Parliament in 2004) is replaced with an Okta Mondo. It is very nice – good graphics, sensible menus and does everything I need.  The Blackberry does e-mail and calendar so just needed a phone mainly for calls and text.

At the Orb store, on Lampton Quay, the assistant’s business card said “Daniel Williams, Clued Up Sales Guy” which made me laugh.  But he was.  He was great at picking a phone and a plan, knowing the discounts, roaming everything.  Can highly recommend the store at 108 Lambton Quay.

In a blast from the past, the manager (Dave M) remembered me from ten years ago, 1998, when he supplied me with around 100 pagers.  I’d almost forgotten about them and what a fuss they were, until he reminded me.

In 1998, text messaging was not known (or widely known) and a Minister reported on how in the UK Tony Blair used pagers to communicate messages of the day to all his MPs. It was decided that the ability to send a short message to all MPs, key staff, and candidates would be highly useful, so I was given the job.  Was a logistical semi-nightmare purchasing and setting up 100 pagers – esp as some were billed to Min Servs, some to Parl Serv and some to National itself.

I recall having to do a training session in Caucus on how to use them (not hard- read and delete messages, plus noise and vibrate modes).  Quite amusing to see 44 MPs all jump off their chairs in unison as they got vibrated for the first time. One of the female MPs asked where she was meant to carry hers, or what to attach it to, and Jenny Shipley wittily replied that she should do what she does, and get Peter (her SPS) to carry it for her.

Everyone was all so excited over these wonderful pagers and we had a group number (which was a closely guarded secret) which would allow the same message to be sent to all 100 pagers (remember tech then was limited).  I was always tempted to  play a joke one day and send them all a message alone the lines of “Ring the PM’s Chief of Staff now over your comments in the media” – would have caused multiple nervous breakdowns.

Some messages were dememed too sensitive for even a Telecom operator to be told, so I had special software installed on my computer which would allow me to tap directly into the Telecom network and send a message directly to one or more pagers.  At the time this was seen as a wonderful innovation.  And for 1998/1999 it was bloody useful.  When a scandal broke we could tell people not to comment, or tell them the approved line.  We also would remind people of the major issue of the day to push with media.  And the good thing with being a pager is no MP or candidate could credibly claim they didn’t get the message.

The irony is we spent all this money on pagers, yet within a few years they were basically ancient technology as cellphone text messaging caught on, and it was realised that is just as convenient as a pager, and a lot cheaper. So somewhere in Parliament probably there is a large box of unwanted unloved pagers rusting away.