[Lexarius]

You might want to look into getting a prepaid phone of some kind, even if it's not a smart phone. Having a portable emergency communication device seems like a good idea even if you're opposed (for whatever reason) to cellphone use in general, and a prepaid phone won't give you monthly bills or contracts to worry about.

If that's no good, then how about Google Voice? In addition to its other useful phone-related features, it allows sending and receiving of text messages.

[mzs]

My wife and I used to have tracfones. I just went and pulled mine out of the box here. It only says motorola on it, no model number or anything other than that. I really liked that phone, it was simple, great battery life, and got reception where others did not. What I did not like is that I paid more than $200 for them and about a year later tracphone said they would no longer work on the phone networks here. What a colossal waste of money that was. I'll keep spending my money on tools in case of emergencies. My wife does have an iphone with a contract now though.

Maybe I should do the google voice thing though, good suggestion, thanks.