It may be better to get an emergency battery charger that runs on AA and charges your usual phone.

It depends. A broken, water-logged, stolen or otherwise inaccessible mobile phone is useless even if you have a charger. Remember the adage, two is one, one is none.

In the UK, SIMs tend to expire if not used for 6 months or so. If you put a spare phone in a draw and forget about it until there's an emergency, the SIM probably won't work. You won't be able to transfer a SIM from your main phone if it's been stolen. (And if getting water-logged is a threat, I'll safeguard my main phone as carefully as I would the emergency phone. No reason why what affects one won't affect the other.)

I'm not arguing against having two phones. By now, most of us have upgraded their main phone at least once, and so have an old phone they can use as a spare.

This may not apply to the UK at all, but before GSM became popular in the US and non-SIM protocols were common here, a mobile phone did not have to be activated with a carrier to be able to dial 911. There was a whole cottage industry of non-profit organizations that recycled donated mobile phones and gave them to battered and abused women to use as emergency phones to call 911 in case they were attacked again.

Does anyone know if the FCC changed that rule about any mobile phone should be able to dial 911? You don't see these donated 911-only mobile phones anymore, but that could be due to the widespread availability of cheap, pre-paid mobile phones now, and not some legal change at the FCC.

I remember that Magnavox used to have a mobile phone, powered by a common battery, that took advantage of this situation to create an emergency, 911-only phone. Great for seniors, too. Flip up the cover and it just had one big, red button to push to dial 911. I believe that was an analog-only phone, which is why the product disappeared as the mobile phone network was upgraded to go all-digital.

A much simpler (and cheaper) solution is one of these:

http://www.gomadic.com/battery-backup-cat.html

It takes AA's and you just get the correct tip for your regular phone and works with virtually any device. I got one of these for a week long bicycle trip I did last summer and used it to recharge my cell phone and GPS every night in the tent. It would recharge my phone in an hour or so. Or you can operate the phone while it's plugged it. I keep it handy at home with plenty of spare batteries for emergencies. I even carry it on long plane flights to recharge my music player if it gets low mid-flight. I only payed about $20 for it and it was well worth it.

i like it! thnx!

Very nice ki7he.