I never have problems with my cell phone (Nextel) unless it's really loud in the area. I have friends who have cell phones with other carriers where often I can't even tell what they're saying, let alone a computer.

When it's too loud or I just don't want to talk, the old AAdvantage # plus PIN works great.

As far as the phonetic alphabet goes, it's handy to know and I usually use it, but you can use any reasonable word that begins with the letter in question. Papa, peter, paul, etc. So you don't have to memorize anything.

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