Apocalypse almost
Cell phone stoped working, showed msg Emergy calls only, Couldnt call my provider as I have only mobile and no landline. Call 911 ask if theres some city wide power shortage that would affect m...
Forum Discussion
What bugs me why they scrapped all public phones?
Because installing an maintaining a public phone costs money and with the proliferation of cell phones, few people use them. But if you ask at a customer service desk, I'd be surprised if they wouldn't let you use their phone or at least make a call for you.
My company doesn't even give desk phones to employees (except for a few, like sales people). Everyone else uses a cell.
If you're traveling solo, you should probably carry a backup phone with a cheap pre-paid SIM from a different provider than your main phone (T-Mobile has a $3/month plan). Even if you didn't have this SIM problem, you could have dropped your phone in a puddle or lost it.
When my wife and I travel, between the two of us, we have 2 phones, a wireless hotspot, a couple laptops, a tablet computer and an Amazon Echo, any of these devices can make a phone call with Wifi (which easy to find at coffee shops, etc). Our cell phones and hotspot are on different providers (AT&T, Verizon and Google Fi (sprint/t-mobile)).
When my elderly parents went on a 6 month cross country trip, I sent them a Garmin Satellite communicator (which I usually take on backcountry hiking trips). They're relatively inexpensive these days -- cost is around $400 + $12/month for a basic SMS plan, but they work pretty much anywhere in the world where you have a clear view of the sky. The one I have is also a handheld GPS, so is a backup for phone based GPS's (it doesn't do street routing like a car based GPS, but at least you can see where you are and where the main roads are). This was great since they could send a message even when out of cell phone range like "Fishing is great here - staying another week", and we knew they were safe and could call for help if they needed anything.
Even Satellite phones have really come down in price, last time I used one was over a decade ago and it cost thousands of dollars and several dollars a minute to talk. Now you can get one for around $500 + $50/month for basic plan, good for emergency use).
