[unfamiliar]

With all due respect, I think you're wildly out of touch with how most people use "phones" these days. Actual calls probably represent about 5% of my phone use. The term "phone" is essentially a historical misnomer at this point.

[FirmwareBurner]

Maybe being in my mid 30's I'm too old to be up to date on this but what do people who aren't "out of touch" use their phones nowadays for? Some form of 'Apps' I'm guessing.

And for those apps to serve their purpose (excepting the likes of Candy Crush and Genshin Impact) what do those apps need? Internet connectivity right? Which is received via the same modem as the calls, right?

So a sucky modem will negatively impact battery life and app usage in challenging environments just as much or even more as call capabilities, right?

Am I close?

[bumblebee977]

Oh you are spot on.

The confusion was probably just about saying it's a phone first. I'm in my mid 30s as well and the only time I call someone is when I contact my mother. I think with the younger generation it's at a point where calling someone is seen as intrusive.

If you are calling me you are taking my choice away on when to deal with whatever you've got. Or at least are interrupting me with the attempt itself. So it better be important.

[eurekin]

So on point. And even when it actually phones 90% of the time I just dodge it. That 10% left is pagerduty. All real contacts use some form of a messaging app instead

[FirmwareBurner]

Can't concur at all

Won't work where I live now in south-centeal Europe (Austria ) where everything is archaic and most services are still done via phone calls like in the past: appointments for plumbers, doctors, recruiter call-backs to job applications, etc.

Almost none of those services here use email or apps as the default, everyone seems to prefer sync communication so they first tries to reach you on phone. If you don't answer or call back they'll assume you're ghosting them and don't need the appointment/service anymore and you'll miss out on important issues. Sometimes they'll leave a voicemail telling you to call them back when you can, so you can never really escape calls here without emigrating.

You can say we both live in completely different bubbles but the existence of one does not invalidate the other.

[eurekin]

I'm from Poland. It's just over the course of years most of the services became messenger contacts, for various reasons, but most common one was the need to reliably exchange pictures

[FirmwareBurner]

And you do need a reliable modem to reliability exchange pictures.

[eurekin]

Yeah, and most of the time I do it on wifi. Still, most of the actual voice GSM part of my phones communication is used by salespeople

[FirmwareBurner]

Sure but when you're out and about and don't have WiFi you'll be relying on your modem to send/receive pictures and all kinds of data.

Probably not an issue if you're all the time in cities with great coverage but you'll feel it when you go in "the woods" or well shielded buildings or basements.