This idea is based on the assumption that city folk who have lived their entire lives in one place know more about the place than some heavily accented call-center agent sitting in India!

This is the situation.....

You are driving in an out of place little town and you need to find something, an address, a store or a gas station.

Now this is what happens….

On your cell phone there is a feature that lets you call someone (with the same service) who is also in that town [he/she would most likely be a resident, but that’s not necessary].

Once you press the button the transmission center that is nearest to you (you could be on roaming and that’s a problem) scans the network for other users who are nearest to you who are over the age of 18 (assuming that little kids with cell phones might not know all there is to know about directions) and those whose phones are not busy.

It displays the name of the person it has connected you to (it gets the same from the service provider…though I don’t know how this would actually work). You look at it and say… hmm… Blissmiss… seems like a nice person and press Ok. now on blissmiss's phone a id displayed in "LostCall" and so she knows that someone is looking for directions. she could decline and then the service will look for another user (thats another assumption, that people tend to help!).

At this point you get connected to Blissmiss who picks up the phone because the call is free for her and besides no one calls her anyway (you are paying twice your air time, for yourself and her).

Once you are connected you tell her you are lost on Huron street (which she understands because she has lived her entire life here) and want to find a really nice but reasonably priced inn. She knows exactly what you need because she knows what inns say they are good and those that are ‘really’ good. She tells you exactly how to get there and how much it might cost you.

Note: inviting her for dinner might not be such a good idea (if that’s what you were thinking about). Been there, done that.
-- nomadic_wonderer, Jan 06 2004

OnStar http://www.onstar.c...ation%2FConvenience
[el observador, Oct 04 2004]

What would be the benefit of a person helping the caller? Is the Cell Phone company running this service?

What might be a nice Inn for me might not be for you. I have lived in my town for 25 years and could not guess how much it would cost to stay in most Hotels around.

...but if you call me I'll be glad to look one up in the phone book for you.
-- el observador, Jan 06 2004



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