A little under a month ago I had to fly back to the US in order to attend my sister’s wedding in Las Vegas. Being that I currently live in London, my cell phone is attached to a UK plan, with virtually NO roaming capabilities unless I upgraded my plan or acquired an American SIM card the moment I landed. Since the US still doesn’t really offer SIM cards in vending machines at the airport (seriously, America, get on that), I had to find a way to contact my family once I landed.
My phone would be next to useless on American soil without a proper SIM card, but wifi would work. So a week before my flight, my dad and I spent about ten minutes trying to come up with a plan that would require me to find a Starbucks and jump onto their wifi service, then use google voice or skype to contact his cell phone. Not the most convenient of solutions, but it seemed like a plan.
I then realized I could simply use a damn pay phone and call up his cell phone from it. So we settled on that.
Arriving at the airport, I found one and poured what little American change I had on me from my last trip over. The “operator” told me I was dialing long distance and needed to add more change. What the hell? Oh, of course… I was in Nevada and my father has a Southern California phone number, so technically I was dialing lost distance from a land line. Forgot about that annoying limitation. Great.
An elderly gentleman saw me having issues with the pay phone and kindly offered me the use of his cell phone. I declared victory and called my father up.
I got his voice mail.
Great…
“Well, spank me rosy!”
Not only can you not get prepaid/temp SIM cards from a vending machine here (you’re right, it’s stupid,) but this is also about the only developed country where cell providers keep fighting to keep their phones locked to them. I don’t mind paying full price for a cell (I don’t need much anyhow,) if I can then get a SIM card from whoever and I’m off and running!
Ergo, most of the cellphones I’ve been buying in the last ten years or so have come from overseas English-speaking markets (my current is a Samsung “bar” phone from the Middle East English-speaking market.)
I don’t even see payphones much at airports anymore! @Schmuck – my grandkids ALREADY think payphones are ancient technology (I used to put dimes in my penny loafers instead of pennies – that way, I always had phone change when I needed it!)
Given that vending machines are increasingly taking debit cards anymore, I wonder how much longer it will be before change is useless…
OMG I get to spank monkey ass sideways!
Give it a decade, two tops, and children will look at pay phones as though they are ancient technology.
Makes me miss the days of my youth!