Just came across this and thought y'all might find it interesting.

http://www.spareonephone.com/product.html

Verrrrry interesting! I've been wanting something like this forever. I like that it uses a common, user-replaceable AA battery, although a lithium AA is probably going to last longer than most users will keep one of these phones around.

Besides running out of juice, if your phone malfunctions or is broken, you can swap out your SIM card and continue to make and receive calls at your usual number. I would assume that contact info saved to your SIM card would also be accessible.

Even without a calling plan, I would assume that it is capable of dialing 911 all by itself. Maybe no E911 features, but I'm OK with that. I wonder if the FCC would have problems with that, though? The FCC didn't seem to like those mobile phones that were recycled but not re-activated on a calling plan and given to victims of abuse so they could call 911. You don't hear about those programs anymore.

I looked around a bit. Seems like MSRP of $49 later this year. Hopefully less when it hits stores.

Do GSM phones even work on American cellular networks? I thought American networks were CDMA-only...

Too bad GSM coverage in the USA is so bad compared to CDMA.

The USA GSM carriers are AT&T and T-Mobile.
Sprint and Verizon are CDMA.

FWIW, GSM phones are generally more innovative, as the GSM standard requires "any device with a valid SIM" to be able to use the GSM network, while CDMA is totally under the control of the carriers, who can decide what devices are allowed to connect to their network.

All of this will be moot in 6-7 years when we have transitioned to LTE anyway.

And you should use that setting.
I was in Canada in December, and I was connected to the hotel WiFi. I was demonstrating how to download a 675MB movie to the iPhone for the client. When I put the phone down, the WiFi dropped, the phone switched to 3G and merrily downloaded the 672MB it didn't get via Wifi.
My overage was - for a few moments - thousands of dollars, but the folks at AT&T reduced that to "only" $200 for the 800MB Canadian data plan.

Note: Canada has the most insanely high data rates for phones anywhere

That's probably AT&T charging most of the money, usually how roaming charge goes. How much do you guys down south pay for data in your plan? I pay $30 for 6 GB per month.

GSM frequencies are kinda being phased out already, the company I'm with is HSPA/LTE (with legacy CDMA support) and GSM phones can't even recognize the SIM card.

Yep, I agree that roaming charges account for most of the damage. Our data rates are still comparatively high, but not that high.

Canada has GSM and CDMA networks that pretty much overlap each other in coverage. Smart phones on either system use a SIM card; older phones do not. Obviously, you can't take a phone or SIM card from one system and port it to the other.

Rogers is the primary GSM carrier, and they're not going anywhere --they're in it for the long haul. Definitely not being phased out, though they may put more marketing emphasis on some regional markets as opposed to others.

Bell has moved to HSPA mostly and maintain CDMA for legacy support, and I suspect both Bell/telus and Rogers will move onto LTE as technology matures.

I looked all over the web site and couldn't find a price, Did I miss something?