> >Why? When travelling on holiday, you need a phone. I don't need one.
>
> Until you need one, and then you need one.
> Phones are very handy devices in some situations.
Do not know if the last sentence is a pun (I believe in Germany they
call "handy" a cell phone, what in Italy is called a "telefonino").
I'm one of the few Italians who do not have a cell phone, and do not
regret it. What I regret, is that with the diffusion of cell phones,
there are less and less phone boots around, specially the coin operated
ones.
In general I do not have need to be contacted when travelling (or simply
when out of home or office), and if so I can leave contact numbers
(offices or hotels). Similarly I generally do not need to call anybody
when travelling, and if I'd need there is usually a phone in my hotel
room, or there are phone boots (unfortunately less now) or other public
phone points.
My only real emergency was when my mother was ill in an hospital in
Scotland, and our travel insurance agent had to communicate us a
reservation code for the pre-paid return ticket, and I had to leave my
hotel sometime before departure. This was elegantly solved using a
service offered by the scottish hospital. Every bed had an LCD screen
device which could be used to receive calls for free, and, with a
pre-paid card, to make calls and watch TV. Since my mother does not
speak English we had not enabled it at the beginning, but did that on
the last day. I tested the system and it was very clever (you dial a
number, and are then instructed to dial a code ... in reply you get a
message saying you are trying to contact the bed of Mrs so-and-so, soyou
can dial 1 to continue or drop the call). My mother was upset when they
changed her room, but the code actually follows the person so it was no
problem (and at the end I got the reservation code in my hotel in
advance). To warn my office of delayed return I used e-mail via the
free internet access in the local public library (very nice, apart a
blank stare when I asked whether they supported ssh ... but I managed
around it).
Slightly annoying was during a short business trip to Porquerolles
island, when I wanted to call home. Our "hotel" was a sort of army or
public service establishment, and rooms had no phones. There were public
phones in the corridor, but, as any other on the island, they weren't
coin operated, and did not work with my credit card, so I simply did not
call.
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