[Boatanchors] WAS Goodies NOW Bell

[manualman at juno.com]

I'm not sure what you mean about "people north of New York City". Sandy
turned west in Southern New Jersey (near Atlantic City). While the winds
were high (it was a Category 3 storm), the more devastating problem was
the storm surge of water that buried a lot of areas in and around NYC,
Long Island, coastal CT, and some areas along the Hudson River with many
feet of water. This killed a lot of electrical service for millions of
people for many days. My cell phone provider evidently was proactive and
had backup generators up and running where necessary as soon as the
normal electrical service failed.

There are still lots of simple cell phones available. My wife has a cell
phone that has numbered buttons, no apps, no whizzy screen, no text, no
video, can't play games, etc. The only difference between this phone and
a regular phone is after she dials the number, she has to press "send".
When she wants to shut the phone off or hang up, she holds down "End".
There's no rocket science here. It's about as simple as you can get.

Pete, wa2cwa

On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 20:02:59 -0500 Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com>
writes:
> On Sat, Apr 11, 2015 at 6:45 PM,  <manualman at juno.com> wrote:
> > Actually during and after hurricane Sandy, my cell phone was my 
> only
> > contact with the outside world.
> 
> That's great but your experience is markedly different from what 
> was
> reported about people north of New York City.
> 
> 
> > With
> > deteriorating copper lines, equipment, and infrastructure, and 
> even
> > support, land line phones in many areas are becoming a thing of 
> the past.
> > The Bell System, as we knew it, is gone forever.
> >
> 
> That may be true in places where you are not fortunate enough to 
> have
> advocacy groups representing the elderly keeping land lines alive:
> 
> http://citizensutilityboard.org/newsReleases20141216_SaveOurService
> 
> I know a number of elderly people who can manage a traditional
> telephone.  They'd probably wind up being without service if they 
> had
> to use a computer or one of the so-called "smart phones."   but for
> some absurd reason, there is an irrational hate-on for a simple 
> rotary
> dial or push button telephone.  Why?  It works and you can dial
> numbers and speak with people.  But, it _must_ go away.  Perhaps it 
> is
> because it does not take pictures.  Or require "apps."  All 
> absolutely
> necessary in order to have a conversation no doubt.  Whoever makes
> these decisions must be around 25 years old.
> 
> 73
> 
> Rob
> K5UJ