ISP Information:
This refers to approximately one billion bytes. To be specific, it is 2^30, or 1,073,741,824 bytes.
ISP Glossary:
Gigabyte - There are also some passive ways of blocking cell phonesignals. Window screening in the walls, grounded to the buildingframe, is supposed to work. There are also specially designed wallpanels to block signals.But many modern buildings have so much electrical and electronicequipment that cell phones and even radios won't work. I have oftenhad very bad reception on my Walkman when in a hospital, sometimeseven on upper floors.http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/business/07jamming.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/business/07jamming.html?pagewanted=print&position=By CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTTAs a frequent guest at a Salt Lake City Hampton Inn, Murray Trepeloften finds himself powering down his cellphone and picking up thehouse phone."My cellphone seldom works anywhere near the hotel," said Mr. Trepel,the senior manager for a call-center service provider in Logan,Utah. "Not just in my room, but in the parking lot as well."What is going on? Mr. Trepel, like many business travelers who dependon uninterrupted service from their wireless company, has a long listof probable culprits -- including the building's architecture, thearea's geography and the cellphone industry's erratic coverage.But another theory is starting to gain traction among businesstravelers: hotels are blocking the signals.They would certainly have the motive. Cellphones have taken a hugebite out of their earnings. Thanks largely to the preponderance ofportables, the profits from in-room phones dropped 76 percent in fouryears, sliding from $644 an available room in 2000 to $152 last year,according to the hotel consulting firm PKF in San Francisco.Analysts say the high fixed cost of maintaining in-room phonesincreased the losses. The downturn accounted for 10 percentage pointsof the hotel industry's 36 percent decline in profits during the sameperiod. "Hotels are unhappy about that lost profit," said RobertMandelbaum, PKF's director of research.But are they so unhappy that they are biting back? No way, say hotelrepresentatives. For starters, they point out, cellphone-blockingdevices are illegal in the United States."It would also hurt our customers, and it's something we would neverdo," said Courtnie Widerburg, the general manager of the Salt LakeCity Hampton Inn. Besides, her property already offers free localcalls and high-speed Internet access, and its franchise agreementlimits how much it can bill for long-distance service, she said.Not only that, but hard evidence is scant that hotels are usingjammers -- at least in the United States. Last year, a Scottishnewspaper reported that phone jammers were being sold to hotels in theUnited Kingdom as tools for increasing revenue from in-room phones."Harassed by mobile phones or hotel phone system not being used?"asked one of the promotional leaflets distributed to theproperties. "Then look no further. Purchase a mobile phone jammer foryour hotel, restaurant and bar. Small and discreet."A reporter from the newspaper, The Record, posed as a bed-and-breakfast owner and bought a jammer and a battery pack for about$135. The man who sold the gadget to him, the reporter said, told him,"I've sold quite a few to hotels and bed and breakfasts."Loreen Haim-Cayzer, the director of marketing and sales for NetlineCommunications Technologies in Tel Aviv, acknowledged that her companyhad sold hundreds of cellphone jammers to hotels around the world. Butasked if any of them were in the United States, Ms. Haim-Cayzer saidshe could not disclose the identity of clients.Still, suspicions persist. Joseph Palermo, a corporate pilot for ahome-improvement company, spent almost a month at a Courtyard propertyin Secaucus, N.J., recently, and he wondered whether it might be usinga jammer."While I was there, my cellphone worked terribly," he said. "SometimesI would have to dial three or four times to place a call. Then I wouldhave to hold my head just right to hear who I was talking to. Youwould think that being across the river from one of the biggest citiesin the world, the phone would work
|
