NEW emergency preparedness cellphone

[azrael99]

while looking for the new high tech toys i saw that product that was looking quite interesting

a emergency preparedness cellphone

SpareOne Cell Phone Maintains Charge Up to 15 Years

Are you looking for the perfect emergency cell phone for your survival pack or zombie kit? Just announced at CES 2012, the new SpareOne Cell Phone that Maintains a Charge Up to 15 Years. From XPAL Power, technology leader behind portable power manufacturers PowerSkin and Energizer Energi to Go, this patented technology works with one AA (Alkaline, NiMH or Lithium) battery.

Not only does the SpareOne Cell Phone maintain its charge for up to 15 years, it also has an amazing talk time of up to 10 hours. For reliability and protection that even forgetful people can count on, the SpareOne is high-tech in the simplest of forms. Enjoy having this safety device on your next outdoor trip and family vacation.

“SpareOne’s breakthrough technology provides an unprecedented lifeline during dire situations that require an emergency response,” said Alan Cymberknoh, SpareOne Project Director at XPAL Power. “By operating on a single AA battery, SpareOne solves so many daily issues, serving as a simple back-up phone you can carry without worrying whether it’s charged or not. It can be left in a car for emergencies, used by hotels who want to pre-program concierge numbers for guests, passed to your children or parents to maintain an open line of communication – it’s essentially designed to make and receive the most important calls, no matter what.”

You can purchase the SpareOne, equipped with an Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA battery and a Micro SIM card, nationwide in early 2012 for $49.99 on at PoweriSkin and SpareOnePhone.com.

not only this cell keep is charge up to 15 YEARS , it's also cheap (50$ for a cellphone ? are you kidding me ??) if they offer Canada coverage you can be sure i will get 1 or 2. one for my car for sure and another one for my BoB

what are you thinking of that ?

[rakkFO]

my sister - in -law is getting a divorce and me and my wife were discussing how her boys need a cell phone and the best option. This will be it, no data plan, 2 sims one number means no extra contract and it will only be use in the situation there is no other phone. Only one question i have is can you program numbers in it. i will buy several one for the safe room and 2 for the cars.

***EDIT*** on closer inspection i see that the numbers 1, 2 and 3 have M1, M2 and M3. Assuming that is memory 1-3 i would say you can program them.

[raptor]

Interesting find. It looks like it would work.

I do have an alternative suggestion. This is if all you may need is to call 911 though.

I am not sure about Canada but I know in the US any working cell phone (even without a contract) can be used to call 911 as long as you have coverage. Thus a used cell phone that you can frequently pick up free or cheap should work.

Also you can get a lithium battery charger for many phones like this for about $15 with batteries.

[KJ4VOV]

My very first thought reading about this was... "Okay, the phone will hold a charge for 15 years, but how long will the service be available?"

Think about all the changes that have taken place in cell phone service over the last ten years, then project forward fifteen years and tell me, "Yes, the phone will still have service in fifteen years, and still be able to connect to the cell network." Somehow, I seriously doubt that.

[airballrad]

My very first thought reading about this was... "Okay, the phone will hold a charge for 15 years, but how long will the service be available?"
Think about all the changes that have taken place in cell phone service over the last ten years, then project forward fifteen years and tell me, "Yes, the phone will still have service in fifteen years, and still be able to connect to the cell network." Somehow, I seriously doubt that.

GSM has been around for 20 years, and although LTE will be the new standard before too long I doubt the GSM frequencies will go away in the next 10-15 years. It is interesting to note that the phone comes in two flavors: 850/1900 MHZ & 900/1800 MHZ. So North American phones won't be able to talk to European networks and vice versa.

[duodecima]

my sister - in -law is getting a divorce and me and my wife were discussing how her boys need a cell phone and the best option. This will be it, no data plan, 2 sims one number means no extra contract and it will only be use in the situation there is no other phone. Only one question i have is can you program numbers in it. i will buy several one for the safe room and 2 for the cars.

***EDIT*** on closer inspection i see that the numbers 1, 2 and 3 have M1, M2 and M3. Assuming that is memory 1-3 i would say you can program them.

I am looking ahead (not forward, just ahead ) to the day when, safety/preparedness wise, my oldest will need cell phone access - I am planning that she will inherit my prepaid dumb-as-a-rock phone, so she can use it to call us if needed, but not do a lot of social stuff on it.

And raptor's right, a lot of women's shelters collect old phones to give their clients 911 access, so even if my daughter uses up all the minutes, she can still call 911 as long as it's charged.

I've seen people occasionally be able to get old cell phones on freecycle.

[EMEUTIER]

The real issue I have is that here in Australia it is impossible to get a pre-paid mobile phone service that will NOT expire if not used.
So these types of 'emergency' phones, although cool are ultimately useless.

[airballrad]

The real issue I have is that here in Australia it is impossible to get a pre-paid mobile phone service that will NOT expire if not used.
So these types of 'emergency' phones, although cool are ultimately useless.

I'm pretty sure 000 would work on this regardless. It would also be useful if your normal phone is dead and cannot be charged; just pop your normal SIM into this phone.

[EMEUTIER]

I'm pretty sure 000 would work on this regardless. It would also be useful if your normal phone is dead and cannot be charged; just pop your normal SIM into this phone.

True, although as I have read in many experiences on these forums in regards to being in an emergency (eg, flood, fire etc) the best thing to do is NOT call 000 (or respective number) but to use sms messages so as to not clog the (most likely) overburdened network.

Oh and upon googling mobile services that don't expire, apparently since the last time I checked there is a mob in Oz that DO provide the 'non-expire' service.... Awesome!

Anyway I have a solar/wind-up charger to be used with my normal phone (or backup) in my BOB.

[DrGonzo]

As cool as this looks, I'm in agreement with some of the previous posters. It's not the physical phone that I'm really concerned about, it's the service. Almost all prepaid plans have some sort of expiration on them. I'd be interested to see a service that has auto-refill when your balance gets low or your expiration date hits. I'm just not organized enough to update a prepaid balance on a phone that sits in my BOB. I've tried in the past, and the balances wind up expiring without being used.

*Edit*

Okay, I've done a little more research. Their website seems pretty bare-bones, but the FAQs are pretty informative. Essentially it's a dual-band GSM phone that runs on replaceable AA batteries. You supply your own SIM. So if you have a GSM carrier (not Sprint or Verizon), you can have a backup phone that runs on AA batteries, yet you can use your normal number. I'd still consider something like this if I can find a GSM prepaid service (T-Mobile, etc) that has really long expiration dates.

[crypto]

My very first thought reading about this was... "Okay, the phone will hold a charge for 15 years, but how long will the service be available?"

Think about all the changes that have taken place in cell phone service over the last ten years, then project forward fifteen years and tell me, "Yes, the phone will still have service in fifteen years, and still be able to connect to the cell network." Somehow, I seriously doubt that.

I have a friend using the same Sprint phone today that he was using in 2000. Handsets change, but the bands not so much. AMPS/NAMPS analog cell service turning off 10 years ago was the last big revolution, but a GSM phone from t-mobile or ATT would still work, and any digital phones from sprint or verizon would work fine too.

The world isnt changing /that/ fast.

[NoAm]

My biggest concern would be availability. Will you be able to get through on your cell phone or will the lines be clogged/towers down?
Going back to 9/11, my cell phone didn't work because there were too many calls at once and the systems couldn't handle the volume of usage.

[zommoz10]

There's a sucker born every minute.

[PhilTheBiker]

In Baltimore over this summers quake the cellphone network was shut down. Between the system being overloaded and the possible rebooting of towers this is not a SHTF device. Only way to talk to my wife was a text message, but it took reseeding that txt msg over and over for 15 minutes. I was on the motorcycle and bugged out of the city quick. Traffic was toast, but, I used some alternative methods on the motorcycle to get through traffic. My normal ride home is 25 minutes, with really bad traffic it was 15 minutes. Cell phones are junk during catastrophic emergencies. My biggest failure was hanging out side my place of work waiting for my company to send us home, lesson learned if I'm evac'ing the building I'm going home.

This, however, would be great for the car as a backup phone.

[bae]

I think this is of little utility without the cooperation of the cell carriers. It doesn't come with a SIM. So you have to take the SIM from an existing phone. You might as well use the existing phone, and use the money for the backup phone to buy a spare battery pack or charging solution.

Now, if carriers offered you extra SIM cards on your account for next-to-nothing for emergency uses like this, perhaps this would be useful.

[airballrad]

I agree that this is not a SHTF device, or even a device to help in a disaster. This is a "I'm in the car or on the trail and my normal cell battery is dead with no means to charge it" device. With destroyed or distressed infrastructure this will do no more good than a tin can without a string.

If that's what you are looking for, it's time to get into amateur radio. With lots of Lithium batteries.