Omelet wrote:
> In article >, sf wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:55:53 -0400, "Edwin Pawlowski" >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> <sf> wrote in message ...
>>>> On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:47:58 -0500, Omelet >
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> The unused cell is an older, used Motorola that was given to me by a
>>>>> concerned mentor on tx.guns. He felt strongly (and rightly so) that
>>>>> anyone that carries a gun should carry a cellphone. At that point in
>>>>> time, I had not gotten a cellphone so when I finally got a new one, I've
>>>>> continued to carry the other one fully charged and "off" just in case of
>>>>> emergencies.
>>>> so you're paying for two carriers and two phones?
>>> You can have a dozen phones all for no cost and on the same carrier. You
>>> just can't turn them on all the time. I've heard, but not verified, that any
>>> phone is capable or connecting to 911, even if you don't have a carrier.
>>>
>> I'm still unclear how you'd use an old phone when the number has been
>> ported to your new one.
>
> I never even bothered changing the number. It's still a number out of
> Houston.
>
> It's there just for calling 911. Period.

Did you ever test it to make sure it will work? Sometimes unactivated
phones won't connect even though they are supposed to. A friend had an
unactivated phone and it would register on the network but when she
tried 911 she would get ARN (American Roaming Network). It turned out
some of the old info wasn't completely reset and that confused the cell
network.