Mobile phones have come a long way since they first became affordable. Up until the point when Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, they were only used for voice communication and text messages. Now they’re used for almost everything imaginable.
What Do You Call Mobile Phones?
Back when mobile phones started becoming commonplace, most people called them “cell phones”. Many people still do. The phones tied to the lines in our homes were called “telephones” or “phones”. Today, most people use “phone” when talking about mobile phones and “landline” when talking about residential, wired phones.
I may be mistaken, but I believe the iPhone was the first “smartphone”. It was designed from the beginning to do more than make or receive phone calls, or send and receive text messages. Although “mobile phone” is the correct term, I’ve never heard anyone call it that. It’s been called many other things as well, but the only things I’ve ever heard were “cell phone” and “phone”.
Phone Services
The only real reason we’re still using phone numbers to communicate is because not enough people have adapted to the easier and less expensive alternatives. Mobile phones can be used with any internet service provider, not necessarily a telecommunications provider. VoIP is being used more and more these days with services like Facebook’s Messenger, Line, Signal, Skype, Viber and more. All you need is an internet connection, and Wi-Fi is sufficient.
When I first started shopping online with Lazada, I was annoyed by the fact that they required a phone number to register. I’m glad I eventually bought an inexpensive SIM card. The reason they want the number is so that the delivery drivers can find my house and to make sure I’m at home to receive the merchandise. All that could be done with a chat service like Messenger as well, if they felt like implementing it.
My Skype Cell Phone Plan
Although I require a phone number for stupid reasons here in the Philippines, I only regularly use it for receiving calls. It costs me nothing and I have no monthly bill. If I need to use it to make calls locally, I’ll buy a “load” for a small amount. That rarely happens. I’ll usually buy a data load (for about $2 USD) that’s good for seven days and use Messenger to call people.
My Skype cell phone plan, as I affectionately call it, costs me exactly $9.49 USD every month. It includes an American phone number with caller ID, call forwarding and voice mail. I also have unlimited minutes to mobile phones and landlines in the United States. I don’t use it as much in the Philippines as I do in the United States. The people I know in the United States use Messenger, so it’s mainly for non-personal calls.
Dialing a Philippines Mobile Phone Number
Calling mobile phones in the Philippines from the United States can be frustrating and, in many cases, very expensive. Using traditional international long-distance phone services is the most expensive way to contact anyone in the Philippines.
The place in the calling sequence for the area code, when it comes to mobile phones, is a 3-digit number which has nothing to do with anything. If you want to call a mobile phone from the United States to the Philippines, it would look like this: 011-63-XXX-XXX-XXXX.
011 is the international access number, 63 is the country number and the first set of numbers after that is the mobile phone network prefix, without the zero up front. That zero is only used when dialing locally. A local number would be 0XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Mobile Phones Promote Bad Behavior
If someone knocked on your door in 1990 and asked to use your phone, it meant coming inside and using your landline. Today, people won’t even knock on your door. They’ll just ask to use the phone you’re carrying (and probably with your face buried in one social network or another).
When we used landlines, it wasn’t expected that we’d always be available. It was considered rude to call people when they were sleeping (or should be sleeping). Today, it seems we’re expected to be available 24 hours a day.
On the flip side, some people won’t answer their phones at all, even when courtesy is in play. Mobile gamers can’t be bothered to answer a call when it means their games will be interrupted. Of course, some people aren’t rudely ignoring their phones. My wife, Josie, doesn’t carry her phone with her anywhere. She can’t answer it unless she’s in the same room as it is.
It’s a shame when people sit down together and end up spending more time on their phones than talking to each other. It’s also a shame when people walk on the street, oblivious to traffic, with their head buried in one app or another. I call them cell phone addicts or cell phone zombies.
Good Mobile Phones Are Expensive
Since I can’t afford to spend what others spend on phones with my retirement income, I have to make them last. I once had a Samsung Galaxy S4 for years after it was no longer supported. The operating system I used was still Android, but it was the LineageOS distribution.
Josie has a Samsung phone she received from our older son, Joe. I have one that I received from our younger son, Jon. When Samsung stops supporting them, I’ll figure out a way to keep them going for at least a couple of more years.
I Like and Dislike My Phone at the Same Time
A list of the things I like about mobile phones (and I probably can’t list them all):
- Calling people when I’m not at home.
- Searching the web when I’m not at home.
- Watching videos.
- Listening to music.
- Banking, when necessary.
Since I have both a desktop and laptop computer at my disposal, I’m more likely to use one of those when I’m at home. There is one thing I use my phone for quite a lot. I’ll watch one form of video entertainment when I go to bed at night, an hour or so before actually sleeping.
My list of dislikes is shorter:
- Application notifications.
- People calling at all hours of the night.
- Spam texts.
When I start getting lots of notifications from apps I don’t really care about, I’ll do everything I can to disable them. I keep my audio muted when I’m sleeping so phone calls won’t wake me up.