This is an interesting idea - a simple AA powered phone.

A bit pricey at $100.

Company website: http://www.xpalpower.com/spareone/

Review: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/03/17/xpal-power-spareone-emergency-phone-review/#more-126623

Interesting concept. For the price, it would be much easier to have the AA adaptor and just recharge your main phone. That being said, with the size and common battery, it would be pretty good for a back up phone. Wonder how one goes about getting a phone number attached to it? Does that travel with the SIM card?

Another backup solution would be to use an Apple iPod touch to make and receive calls using a VOIP client such as the 3CXphone app.

Using a ZTE MF60 MiFi together with an external antenna (if required) such as 10dBi 1920-2170Mhz Directional Antenna with an iPod touch, cheap international calls, clear voice quality calls and the ability to make calls in poor 3G signal strength areas.

The iPod also makes for an excellent HiFi using a Fatman Wi-Tube Amp and dock.

I am usually willing to pay a premium for electronics with compactness, simplicity, and usage of common batteries. However the XPal's lack of ability to send/receive text messages kills the deal for me. In emergencies its vital for a phone to be able to text. This is not hypothetical, it has been proven for real and discussed here on the forums.

If someone came up with an inexpensive phone (say, $50) that ran on AA Lithium batteries and had text messaging capacity, I'd buy at least a couple for our kits. Ideally you'd be able to buy a pack of minutes and text messages that didn't expire more often than once per year.

The pay-as-you-go phones I've seen have minutes and messages expire after three months or less. That makes them uneconomical for my uses. Even then I might buy one and be willing to activate it over the air (by calling customer service with a credit card) but the SIM stops working a few months after the minutes and messages expire, so again it doesn't make sense for my purposes.