Rented smartphones for tourists offer free international calls and unlimited internet access

Hong Kong-based handy is leasing out smartphones to visitors, pre-loaded with free calls, 3G internet access and apps to help them navigate their destination.

Tourists who don’t travel abroad often can sometimes face steep price increases for making phone calls and texts if their tariff doesn’t include international minutes and roaming charges come into effect. Bearing this in mind, Hong Kong-based handy is leasing smartphones out to visitors, pre-loaded with free calls, 3G internet access and apps to help them navigate their destination.
The service provides an Android smartphone – either a Samsung Galaxy Note or Google Nexus – that can be picked up from Hong Kong International Airport and used in place of their usual device for the duration of the trip. Customers pay HKD 68 per day for the handset, which comes with unlimited local and international calls as well as internet access. The phone can be used to connect laptops to the internet and helps tourists avoid spending time looking for free wifi hotspots. The device also comes with apps pre-loaded – such as Skype, Facebook, Kayak, BBC News and public transport planners – that may be useful for tourists, although they can also download their own apps. Customers also get discounts for popular attractions delivered to them through the phone.
Much like Madrid’s PadInTheCity, handy helps those unfamiliar with a city to guide themselves using technology they can carry around with them. Could this work in your part of the world?
Website: www.handyhongkong.com
Source:Internet

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ITU-T G.811 PRC

ITU-T G.811 PDF

Timing characteristics of PRC clock.

This Recommendation outlines the requirements for Primary Reference Clocks (PRCs) suitable for synchronization supply to digital networks. These requirements apply under the normal environmental conditions specified for digital equipment.
A typical PRC provides the reference signal for the timing or synchronization of other clocks within a network or section of a network. In particular, the PRC can also provide the reference signal to the slave clock specified in Recommendation G.812 within the network nodes where the PRC is located. This Recommendation defines the PRC output but it does not apply to the output of slave clock directly fed by a PRC. The long-term accuracy of the PRC should be maintained at 1 part in 1011 or better with verification to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). A PRC may be realized as an autonomous clock, operating independently of other sources. Alternatively, the PRC may be realized as a nonautonomous clock which is disciplined by UTC-derived precision signals received from a radio or satellite system. In either case, the requirements for long-term accuracy and short-term stability, as specified in this Recommendation, apply.
The long-term accuracy of 1 part in 1011 or better is adequate when a single PRC provides the reference synchronization signal to all other clocks within a network (synchronous mode of operation). In the pseudo-synchronous mode, i.e. not all clocks in the network have timing traceable to the same PRC, the long-term accuracy is dependent on the number of PRCs in that network.
When more than one PRC is used in a network, a statistical approach is needed to determine the long-term accuracy of each PRC in that network.

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