July 15, 2005

A friend of mine loved his mobile phone. It was one of the old school Motorola StarTAC flip phones. He's relied on these phones for years. His loyalty to the StarTAC was so strong that when he came across a box of several of them for sale on Ebay, he couldn't resist. He logically figured that since they didn't make them anymore he would stock up and always have one as a replacement. Imagine his surprise when he recently attempted to activate one of his replacement StarTACs and was denied. The Verizon associate told him that they wouldn't be able to activate the phone because a government mandate required that all newly activated phones be GPS enabled. Oh really!? Sure, I understand the practical uses of GPS (driving directions, fleet tracking, etc.) as well as the 911 implications, but it seems to me that GPS capability should be an option, not a requirement. So now everyone who has a cell phone has an automatic tracking device. Sure, the feds, the man, and even your momma could always track a cell position by the towers in the area through which a phone is transmitting (right?), but could they pinpoint the latitude and longitude of your position in real time? Like I said, I'm not paranoid, hell, I have NEXTEL and my phone is GPS enabled, but now your telling me that I don't have the option of owning a cell phone that's not a tracking device, BULLSHIT I say! BULL...SHIT.