[...]
 
BA> A cell provider does have to 'introduce' the phone to its system.  I
BA> presume it's done by extracting the internal numbers from the phone and
BA> somehow equating them to the phone number that it will then respond to.
 
I'm thinking in yesteryear terms, I suppose.  Nowadays I think they link
the phone via the SIM chip, as Roy pointed out.  It used to be the phone's
serial number because the provider would ask you to tell them what it is. 
If you ordered a phone over the I'net, then that info was recorded and the
phone was activated before you received it.
 
BA> I'm not clear on exactly how it's done. It occurs to me that one calls
BA> the
BA> number assigned and somewhere along the line that number is converted to
BA> the permanent ID numbers in the phone and those numbers are the ones the
BA> cell system uses to track it down and connect to it.
 
See above.
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

... Use DEVICE = EXXON to screw up your environment.
--- D'Bridge 2.99