A survival cell phone is one that will survive environmental abuse such as being dropped on the ground from a considerable height, dunked in water and works reliably in extreme temperatures down to -20C and up to +60C where other ordinary cells phone do not work.

You expect flashlights and GPS equipment to be water resistant or waterproof and work over extended temperature ranges (Mil spec??) , why not your cell phone?

jitterbug is only a cell phone. go here.

it is being marketed to us "boomers" and "olders" who only want a cell phone, not with all the other stuff. and it has really BIG numbers on the display!

just check the coverage.

and can someone explain why we seem to be forcing a marginal instrument - the cell phone, which many times seems to me to be no more better than two tin cans with a string between them - to be a survival instrument?

like the man says above, if you want the opportunity to be in touch - get a sat phone. otherwise, how about not getting yourself in a jam to begin with? or self-rescuing?

we rely too much on marginal stuff, built by others. i'd prefer to rely on myself, also built by others! but designed by me.

Good one, dweste!

People were different 100 years ago. I had this conversation with a work colleage from Zimbabwe who spent the first half of his life in the African bush without the use of electricity in any form what so ever. He talked about the transition to the western style of living with the use of electricity with all this entailed and he laughed at the idea of westerners having to possibly deal with a reverse transition to a lifestyle without electricity in an emergency stating that this would be 'impossible'.

Take away the western forms of communication such as cell phones, PSTN phones, broadband internet, dial-up internet, broadcast media like the TV and radio and electricity in general and I'm afraid I would have to agree that folks today on the whole wouldn't be unable to make that transition to those same people 100 years ago.

Even the small example of the Digital TV switchover, which will occour in 179 days, 8 hours, 5 minutes will create a certain amount of a hullabaloo.

Why not just regard the cell phone in the same manner as the whistle, the flashlight and the signal mirror as means of signalling a rescue if required. The whistle is only as good if someone is within range of the sound the whistle makes. The signal mirror and the flashlight is only as good as when someone can see the signal light. Same with the Cell phone - only as good as the radio reception distance to a cell tower. Every piece of survival kit has its advantages and its limitations including GPS's, Sat phones, SPOT devices and PLBs. BTW most Sat phones aren't ruggedised to the same degree as GPSs, SPOT and PBLs.



Couldn't agree more - PPPPPP. Little chance of getting a Cell phone signal where you intend to go a hiking then bring along a Sat Phone. Or forget them both and make the expedition a little more exciting.

If one would go to a site like Verizon and do a search for "ruggedized", one could find phones that are a tad tougher than the norm such as the Verizon Wireless G'zOne Boulder or the Motorola Adventure™ V750 (both built to Mil Spec).

Those may be tough, hard-to-break phones, but since the primary attribute is reception, the bigger question re a "survival" cell phone is one of the network itself. My non-ruggedized Nokia and Moto have both taken some pretty bad drops onto concrete and kept right on working.

I think that in the Southwest, network choice is a key part of selecting a cell-phone if you do any travel away from metropolitan areas. I have been much happier with service from those networks that are not ENTIRELY GSM-based in the rural areas that surround the city where I live. Services like T-Mobile and Sprint(PCS) just don't work more than 10 miles outside of my city.

Without delving into more technology, just take a good look at the network coverage maps of the providers you are considering. Also, the more "bands" your phone has the better. I haven't looked in a while but Verizon and AT&T seem to offer the best coverage but are also a bit more expensive.

(I have no affiliation with Verizon or AT&T)

I have the Verizon G'zOne and it has taken a beating. Been dropped, fell in a creek (3 times) and got soaked. Still keeps working.

I also have the Verizon G'zOne and I love it. I catch flack about it from guys with teeny tiny phones, but once they learn that it's shock proof, waterproof, dust proof, and can act as a GPS direction finder (I can also play Tetris and Galaga on it). I haven't dropped it in a creek but I've had to use it in heavy rain, and it's been bounce checked a few times from between three and five feet.

Cool, thanks...