Impolite society
"[C]ell phone technology: it works better outside. But with flat-rate pricing making cell phones cost-competitive with office phones, cell phone users should move back inside -- where they belong. This is an infrastructure mismatch, though, as cell towers are outside, and getting signals to punch through walls costs carriers money; the weaker signals also cost users battery life.

Thus RadioFrame, which makes a low-cost cellular (and other wireless) antenna system that's geared for in-building installations. Given that this technology is a more cost-effective way to serve indoor customers, and that it frees up the existing outdoor infrastructure to handle more calls, cellular carriers should love it. Lucent, as well as some smaller companies, makes competing products."

Here in France I just bought a Sagem device that gives us better and cheaper indoor service on our Bouygues Telecom cell phones. It plugs into our fixed line, which is now only used for ADSL internet access.