Cheap cellular phone accessory

Confession: It took a bit longer than expected. The Picturephone Ma Bell rolled out nearly 30 years ago fell flat. The service was available only in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., where users at both ends had to come to special offices, and the first three minutes cost $16 to $27. Now the latest technology transport consumers back to the future imperfectly glimpsed in 1964: AT&T's new VideoPhone is a home phone tha carries video and voice over an ordinary line.

And the VideoPhone isn't the only new or evolving species of telephone. The short range of many cordless phones-some can barely make it from one floor to another-could expand with the advent of models that exploit newly available frequencies. And cellular phones are fast finding homes in Mazdas and Fords. They have become so affordable that people who once regarded them as playthings of the rich and obnoxious are coming to see them as today's CB radios. Even infrequent users can afford cellular phones-if they price the market carefully. The following guide will help consumers ring in the new era.

* The VideoPhone. Two people equipped with the $1,499 VideoPhone 2500, due out this summer, can watch moving images of each other on small screens. After dialing as usual, you press a "video" key to display yourself to the party at the other end of the line and vice versa, as shown below. To avoid being seen, shy folks can also pull a shield over the camera lens. To squeeze the full-color, data-dense pictures through an ordinary phone line, the phone compresses them and sends them at two to 10 frames per second, compared with 30 per second for television. That makes them look jerky, like a movie running at a fraction of its normal speed.

AT&T clearly hopes the value of eye contact will overwhelm the aesthetic flaws. The company is pushing the VideoPhone as a "grandmaphone" that keeps the generations in visual touch over any distance. But executes might choose to go on camera, too, as a cheap one-on-one alternative to video conferencing. And small businesses like florists could display their wares to customers.

Business people and consumers put off by the $1,500 purchase price will be able to rent a VideoPhone at an AT&T Phone Center for under $30 a day. The company will also set up pay VideoPhones in the stores and, eventually, in hotels and airports. In the future, other firms are expected to market their own modern-day picture phones.

* Cordeless. Even cord-free phones ca tie consumers in knots. The working distance between the walk-around handset and the base unit that plugs into the phone jack can be a few feet under harsh conditions, and voice quality suffers near the outer limits. Static and interference from fluorescent lights, microwave ovens or even a neighbor's baby monitor can make many models unusable at times. You sometimes overhear other people's phone conversations, and someone might eavesdrop - perhaps deliberately, with a radio scanner - on yours.

The newest cordless technology takes aim at these flaws for those willing to pay a stiff premium. Panasonic's KX-T9000 ($450) and VTECH's Tropez 900DX ($349) - and coming entries from Code-A-Phone, Cincinnati Microwave and Cobra - are the first phones that exploit the 900-megahertz band recently opened up for cordless use; until now, cordless phones have operated at 46 to 49 MHz. VTECH claims the 900-MHz spectrum will multiply the usual range five to 10 times, possibly approaching half a mile under perfect conditions (a featureless landscape at night, say). In an informal U.S. News test, however, the Tropez couldn't even make it as far as a city block. Moreover, despite the firm's boast of "digital-quality" sound, voices were muffled. But 900-MHz technology is still emerging. If claims of improved range, greater security and clearer reception holp up, the future could be promising.

* Cellular. Everyday consumers are snapping up cellular phones for their cars or briefcases. There were 7.6 million cellular subscribers at the end of 1991, a gain of more than 2 million in a single year. And Personal Technology Research, a consulting firm, predicts a redoubling by the mid-'90s.

Aggressive marketing and plummeting prices explain why. The average cost of a typical mobile or car phone has dropped from $1,100 in 1988 to around $320, estimates market research firm Herschel Shosteck Associates. Transportables, or "bag phones" - cellular phones in soft or hard luggable cases that can be used in or out of the car, have fallen in cost from the average $1,100 to about $340. Prices are even dropping in the sizzling portable category - hand-held phones you might take to the airport or on the commuter train. In the mid-priced range, the average has gone from about $1,400 to $600.

Some stores seem to want to give the phones away. Ads in Dallas have trumpeted a free Motorola bag phone, and Newark, N.J., merchant has offered an Ericsson car unit for under $50. Even such low-priced models generally perform well. But the picture is incomplete. To boost a portable's performance to an acceptable level in the car, say, usually entails an additional $75 to $150 for an antenna; and a spare battery pack, a recommended buy for heavy pack, adds $75 or so more.

The real cost of cellular phoning isn't the phone and its accessories, however. it is the monthly bill. Retailers are often paid commissions to sign up cellular subscribers, so new subscribers frequently get a low price of phones. Since the cost of service will quickly overshadow the cost of the phone, experts recommend shopping for rates first. The Federal Communications Commission licenses only two cellular providers in each metropolitan-area market. The charges vary widely depending on the area where you live and how often and when you make - and receive - calls. Each provider typically offers at least three rate plans. In Seattle, for instance, McCaw's Cellular One has a plan geared to customers who want a phone only for emergencies: $29.95 per month, with a sliding scale of 43 to 57 cents a minute for calls during peak business hours and 21 cents per minute at night and on weekends. Heavy business users, on the other hand, might pick a $139 monthly plan that includes services like voice mail. After the free airtime has been exhausted, the cost per minute is 30 to 35 cents peak and 20 cents off-peak. A halfway option costs $86 per month for three hours of free talk and then a per-minute charge of 38 cents peak and 20 cents off-peak.

The biggest trap is that the phones tend to get used more than expected, leading to unpleasant surprises. "I got my car phone for emergencies," says Robin Blank, a school psychologist who lives in Philadelphia. "But pretty soon I'd say, 'I'm going to be a little late, so I'll call in.' Or, 'I'd better check the messages on my answering machine.' Suddenly everything becomes an emergency. It's always the little things, and the little things add up." Blank's monthly tab has climbed as high as $99. Moreover, users who stray outside their home turf may be strapped with "roaming charges." Bell Atlantic customers who meander from one Bell Atlantic area to another, for example, are charged 99 cents per minute instead of their usual rate. Using the phone outside Bell Atlantic territory could add a $3 daily surcharge.

Most urban and rural areas in the United States can now handle cellular calls. Cellular technology maps a city or town into a gridwork of cells, each served by a low-powered radio transmitter and receiver. Each cell is connected to a central computer that is tied into the phone system. As a driver using a phone moves from cell to cell, the conversation is automatically handed off to the next transmitter. There were 7,847 cells at the end of 1991, up from 5,616 the year before.

The spread of cellular technology has gotten a boost from light, pocketable portables like NEC America's 7.8-ounce P600 ($1,399 with spare battery pack and charger) and Motorola's 7.5-ounce MicroTAC Lite ($1,200 and up). Most are powered by rechargeable batteries that run down fairly quickly. The MicroTAC, for example, yields about 45 minutes of talk time and eight hours of standby time on its regular battery. A higher-capacity battery pack pushes the times to 150 minutes and 24 hours, respectively, but adds almost 2 ounces. A $2,500 MicroTAC package, available from some carriers, comes with an extra pair of battery packs and a quick charger that works in less than an hour. Fujitsu's Pocket Commander ($750) offers a clever alternative: A $30 accessory lets the phone run on five AA alkaline batteries.