alt Hacker News> but no one wants to use a pay-phone when they have their own mobile!
I have a hobby-level interest in avoiding pervasive surveillance, and have been thinking about ditching my phone more often. Something like no-cell Tuesdays.
What if I have a family emergency? I don't have a desk phone, but I could pay more attention to my work email.
What if my car breaks down? I could use a payphone, except those don't really exist these days. I could walk to the nearest gas station and ask to use their phone, but they would probably think I was crazy.
The other thing payphones used to have (at least here and there) was an attached phone book with Yellow Pages where I could find a tow company. Lets say I do manage to beg access to a phone, how do I know who to call?
Now that everyone carries all these things in their pocket, other systems for handling these problems have atrophied.
Replies
If the car breaks down maybe ask a stranger to look up the number for a truck and hit dial, then hand the phone to you. In a public place, of course. If I were in a gas station and someone who was dressed normally asked me that I probably wouldn’t refuse.
I use a TCL Flip for this purpose. Phone calls and texting work well enough, the web browser is painful on the small non-touch screen but works in a pinch, and the phone can create an LTE hotspot.
Sometimes I also carry my smartphone but I don't /need/ to. I've told my family and trusted contacts that any emergency should be a phone call.
Put a solar powered MeshCore repeater on top of your house & give a MeshCore companions/clients to your family members.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeshCore
https://meshcore.co.uk/
https://meshcore.co.uk/map.html
Your family memebers should be able to send you encrypted text messages using the MeshCore network only, with no dependence on cellular network or the Internet.
They just need to be in range of your repeater or in areas covered by other nodes that can transitively reach yours. If you are too far from other repeaters to connect, you might need to arrange for some intermediate repeaters being installed. But due to their solar nature (with solar charged battery for night operation), only a secure mounting is needed - this makes gaining permission of their installation a lot easier. With good placement a repeater has a range in dozens of kilometers.
Some example hardware currently recommended for use:
client/companion: Meshtastic Nordic nRF52840 SX1262 LoRaWAN LoRa Arduino Positioning Devboard Low Power TFT Display BLE WiFi Mesh node T114 V2.0" - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007593391057.html
solar repeater: SenseCAP Solar Node P1-Pro for Meshtastic - https://www.seeedstudio.com/SenseCAP-Solar-Node-P1-Pro-for-M...