Reminder: When Donating A Mobile Phone, Turn Off Service

from the public-service-announcement dept

Charities that ask for mobile phone donations are very popular these days. The phones are often resold or recycled and shipped to other countries that can use them. One particularly popular use of old mobile phones is to give them to the elderly. Federal law requires that even if a phone has no service, it has to be able to dial 911 (assuming the battery is charged) - so some groups give out these old phones to senior citizens to carry around in case of emergency. Engadget points us to the story of one man who donated two phones for just this purpose, but figured the charity would turn the Verizon Wireless service off for him. phone bills over $1,000 proved him to be wrong. Even worse, the charity in question doesn't know who they gave the phone to, so no one knows who's making these calls. Verizon Wireless is looking into the matter, but makes no promises, saying it was the guy's responsibility to turn off service.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Chomper, 21 May 2004 @ 1:31pm

    No Subject Given

    Oh my gosh, can this guy get the idiot of the year award?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    acb, 22 May 2004 @ 9:02am

    No Subject Given

    Don't US (non-GSM) mobile phones keep all the subscriber information on a SIM card, which can be removed prior to handing the phone over? GSM phones (used in Australia and Europe) do.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Ed, 23 May 2004 @ 6:09am

      Re: No Subject Given

      No. I don't know about newer phones, having been out of the USA for a year, but older phones of the type that would likely be donated don't have SIM cards.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.