Coughing Up Cell Phones in Tbilisi
On one of the journalism forums I visit, there was a post on cell phone hacking.
Which reminded me:
When I first went to the Republic of Georgia a couple of years ago, I was gonna be there for a few months, so I needed a SIM card for my phone.
One of my all-time favorite people, Vinny, went with me, commandeering the afternoon to make sure I got a tour of the city, including a stop at the cell phone place.
When we got there, I filled out paperwork in triplicate, but found out that the Austrians were one step ahead of us--the phone company had a block on the use of other SIM cards.
Apparently, Austrian laws and restrictions are not a problem in the Republic of Georgia.
The guy helping us walked us over to the window and pointed to a stately corner building across the street. The one that was flying about 40 different flags outside, looking like the United Nations.
"That's it. The one with the flags."
So Vinny and I dodge across the street to Flagville, while I protested the whole time that this "can't be it."
Outside looked like the United Nations, inside was a river of cables blanketing the floors, and two geeks.
"I need a SIM card for my phone, but XX Telekom says it's blocked."
No words were exchanged, the cell phone was taken from my hand, computer keyboards were tapped, and two minutes later my phone was in my hand, along with a new Georgian number.
2 comments:
Hi Patti,
Thanks for taking a look at my blog. I'm not sure why the photo links don't work, but thanks for letting me know. When I'm not too lazy I'll get around to fixing them. I did, indeed, enjoy Vietnam immensely. It was my favorite country in Southeast Asia. I'm jealous you've gotten to go three times!
As for the cell phones, I've had the same experience everywhere except in first world Western countries. The key in our home countries is to stockpile a bunch of geek friends who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty, but it sounds like you've already found a Georgian version. Perhaps you can take one of them home?
Enjoy the rest of your travels!
Leah
I fel the same way about Vietnam... just mesmerizing. And the motos and traffic are impossible to describe... speechless at this orchestrated chaos.
Even the kitsch is spectacular!
Re: the Georgians: basically what they did was break into the Austrian telecom system (state-controlled, by the way) and unlock my phone. Highly illegal, and surprising that it was in an establishment on the main street--as if it was a legit, respected business.
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