I came accross an article in the "Money and Careers" section of Long Island's "Newsday" daily on December 31. The article was titled
"A Wireless Phone that can go through a wringer". Here is the link -- if the link does not work then go to the "newsday.com" site and search for the Author's name "Himowitz". The author describes how he threw the phone against a wall, ran it through the washer -- and even dialed the phone and heard it ring as it went through the "wash cycle" etc.

Verizon G'zOne Review

Considering how an ordinary cell phone might be rendered inoperable at the very moment when it is most needed for survival (ie. car accident, dropped on the pavement, lands in a puddle) I would think that upgrading to a "ruggedized" phone may well be wise.
Has anyone on the forums had experiences with such "ruggedized cell phones"??

Nextel and its proprietary Motorola phones pretty much has a lock on the "rugged phone" market, although the iDen network isn't generally much good for rural/wilderness use. Any rugged phone competitor needs to compete with Nextel, and in particular, with Direct Connect. I don't think that anyone can. I think every carrier except T-Mobile has tried to come up with their own push-to-talk solution but they all failed. Direct Connect works and works well so I don't think any rugged phone competitor will last long because buyers like construction or fleet operators won't want to lose Direct Connect, and the consumer market for rugged phones seems very slim.

Actually, someone remind me, what's going to happen to Direct Connect? Was Sprint slated to phase that out? Didn't Sprint sell that spectrum back to the FCC?

If you want one of these Casio phones, better get one now since I predict that it will disappear relatively soon. Too bad that it doesn't work with analog networks either.

My Nokia 1100 Tracfone has been through the wash. Twice.
Still works. Just needs some drying time.

Amen! Toughest phone I've ever had--including some green ones the Army gave me :0

Sprint is indeed going to eventually phase out Nextel. It will still hang on for a couple of years just because a lot of businesses use it.

My own experience with Nextel is that those are the LAST phones that you would want to have in the wilderness. Some models might survive harsh conditions, and they will work great once you get into the city, but reception is a problem. Nextel even has absolutely no coverage on I-70 between Denver and Kansas.

I totally agree with Arney and Harkev. We have the Motorola model 305 (w/rubber armor) with the Nextel service. The problem is when we are in cross country mode. Away from the cities, reception ranges from "poor" to "hit and miss", at best.
I have found that Alltel and Cingular networks provide the best overall coverage with only a few "voids", here and there, as we go cross country via the Gulf Intracoastal Canal (GICW) and the Western Rivers.

I agree with your observation about the quad-band RAZR being able to communicate in more areas. The author of the G'zOne review in fact pointed out that one weakness of the phone was it's inability to "fall back" into analog mode if a digital cell tower could not be contacted.

Thus, in addition to basic ruggedness, we should narrow our search to phones capable of operating on several "cellular bands" (I don't know the correct terminology).

Now the question is -- are you willing to put your RAZR through the dreaded washing-machine test and tried to call it while in the wash cycle -- as the author of the G'zOne review did?? :-)

I have an I630 from Nextel, the kind that are made to milspec, and it has survived an enraged engineer throwing it against a cinderblock building from a couple dozen yards away.

Theoretically it could survive I mean, not that I would do something like that.