This discussion is Beehive CEO's - monthly column as found on the last page of Americas Network magazine. They have been printing his letters for nearly 20 years. This column will remain posted till he writes the next one. The Last Word..                                                October 1997 GETTING A WIRELESS FIX How FAA tech can help carriers find cell phones. Recent Federal communications commission actions say that by 2001 cell and SMR operators have to locate a phone within 1,000 feet.  Big time expense. One of my jobs for the 5th Air Force was as communications supervisor for central Japan's aircraft control and warning network.  We had an air defense control center (ADCC) at Johnson Air Force Base near Tokyo.  Three tactical control centers were 100-plus miles out.  The ADCC had manually plotted information (written backwards) from behind lucite map panels from nine radar sites.  Information was gathered by telephone; primary lines were on four-channel military 70 MHz Frequency Modulation multiplex.   Dedicated Japanese telephone lies provided backup with High Frequency radio in case of telecom failure. From the necessity of the military, air traffic control (ATC) has constantly upgraded.  ATC's are scattered throughout America.  Big Iron airlines drivers can name them all.  I've only talked to Seattle, Oakland, Denver and Salt Lake City.  These facilities house 20 plus year old creaky computers with broadband circuits to haul radar signals to the center from various points within each center's area of control. FLOW CONTROL Recent ATC advances include Flow Control. Flow Control came about to avoid having airliners circling around for hours waiting to land when (as and example) too many arrived at the same time. Flow Control uses new computers which gather and store the position of all air craft over 14,000 feet high within the U.S. continental airspace.  you can "mouse click" any aircraft (a radar dot) on the map, and the computer will tell you all about that target.  Or it will find things. like the IL-62 heading across the pole from Moscow to Seattle.  Or all Mooney's irrespective of location. Flow Control computer data is upgraded by satellite several times an hour.  When the Federal Aviation Administration sees too much traffic heading for a major hub,  such as New York or Chicago or, if there is weather   or just too much congestion, planes are not given clearances to take off.  It is cheaper and safer to sit on the ground.  I've seen more than 30 airliner lined up waiting departure east from Ch9dago.  The Flow Control system is at work.    It's a remarkable toy. WHERE ARE YOU? Recent Federal Communications commission actions say that by 2001 cell and SMT operators have to locate a phone within 1,00 feet.  Bit time expense.   Operators are lucky to reach a customer from one base station,  let alone the three required to nail a fix.  It would be cheaper for the operator, and ever more expensive (and technically not feasible unless outside) for the user, to incorporate a GPS receiver in the handset. OK, so the locator stuff will not be in the handset.  It is not much of a jump, then, to incorporate the central site locator data into a national database like the government already has for its aviation Flow Control system.  It will pinpoint any cell phone if within range of two or more cell sites.  How many folks pay for that kind of information? LOCKED COINS More and more folks are mad a Ameritech and others for locking public phone dial pads so we can't access our answering machines when on the road.  Earlier this year I stopped at every public phone I could find in Miami and wasted countless dollars only to find all local exchange carrier and customer owned, co8in-operated telephones (C)C)T?) dial pads locked after I dialed my number.  Happened in Chicago, too.  Grumble... COCOT CHARGES My Beehive Telephone Co. is the certified wireline telephone provider at the U.S. National Park Service's $7 million Lake Powell marina a Dangling Rope, Utah.   They only allow me one public phone which provides call card and 800 free access.   AT&T rates apply.  The park has now allowed a COCOT using cellular to place a pair of their phones at a more visible location on the wall of the marina store and allowed them use of telephone lines and space in a utility closet in the concessionaire's air conditioned buildings (which they don't allow Beehive to use). The cost to the public to make a call? $9.75 minimum.  NO 800 service; VISA, Collect or NON-891 cards only.  Hmmm....... ** Copyright 1997 by A. W. Brothers and Americas Network magazine. All rights reserved.   © 1997, 1998, 1999 Beehive Telephone Co.