I don’t have a smartphone, I have a dumb phone, also known as a land-line. For $72 a month I have a phone in my house connected to an outside wire, with internet service via DSL. I also have no contract. No penalties if I bail. Nothing…
I have a Google voice account that allows me to text from my home computer at no charge and receive replies via my Gmail account. I can also make long distance calls through that service, which get routed to my land-line phone. Also free. My unlimited Skype account lets me make calls from any of my computers for about $30 a year.
Before I went on vacation I had a work provided cell phone. It was handy for connecting with parents, customers, co-workers and the office. As I embarked on my adventure I had no phone, and no GPS. Now that I’m back I still have no phone and I like it!
Back in my Seattle days I had my company supplied supervisor phone, a bulky two-way radio, a Nextel and my personal phone which was part of a family plan with Steph and Riley. I knew it was just wrong when I walked into my bank with all of them attached to my hip and the teller referred to me as the most wired dude he had ever seen :-)