An Eye On: telephones
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Brussels: a Hungarian was arrested last week for robbing the cafeteria of a Belgian football club. He stole food, drink, a radio and compact discs, but his mistake was to telephone his girl-friend in Hungary before he stole the telephone too. When the phone bill arrived, officials noticed a pounds 70 international call and tracked the criminal through his girlfriend's number.
Britain: Of the 663,312 people who contacted BT's Nuisance Calls Bureau last year, 15 per cent were victims of malfunctioning electronic equipment, including one elderly woman who was rung up repeatedly throughou the night by a public toilet in a Leicester park which had developed a fault.
Brazil: A dispute is raging over a cellular phone concession in Sao Paolo. A Swedish consortium offered the biggest tender - of 1,326,943,944.00 reals, or about pounds 800m - but in Brazil the use of commas and full stops in writing numbers are reversed: the comma is the decimal point, and the full stop separates blocks of three digits. So they were told that the bid had been construed as being worth about 80p.
Britain: When asked in a recent poll which man's phone number they would most like to have, 21 per cent of women chose Tony Blair. Among men, the most desired number was that of the Spice Girls.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments