Hi Charles,
CH>You are somewhat naive; or you haven't been paying attention to all of
CH>the hype the cellualr companies have been pushing.  i.e. it's not safe
CH>out there unless you have a cellular phone;  don't get a flat or break
CH>down unless you have a cellular phone.
We have not seemingly been exposed to the same degree of hype in good 
ol' Australia as you fellers in the States, regarding the safety aspect, 
but I have to tell you that only one week after I got a cellphone, I was 
driving at 3am in the boondocks of Sydney when the gearbox of my car 
decided to pop a seal an drop all the transmission fluid, leaving the 
torque converter spinning with a really groovy sound, but the car going 
nowhere.
Public phones around here being what they are (vandalised and 
inoperable), I merely picked up the new cellphone and called the NRMA 
(our road assistance organisation) and within 15 minutes there was a 
guy there who said there was nothing he could do to get me going, 
however his organisation would send a towtruck. This happened within 
another 15 minutes and the car was towed to a transmission place and 
left there and I got a lift home with the towtruck driver.
I can just imagine the other scenario, standing there with no means to 
call anybody at 3am if I did not have the cellphone. I had a 2 metre 
Amateur band radio in the car, but jeez, nobody's around at that time of 
day who could have made a call for me.
So in this instance, having a cellphone really saved my bacon and 
similar things have happened since.
There is NO WAY I go anywhere without the phone. It's worth its weight in 
gold.
It has also paid off big-time as far as business goes. I work in two 
fields, that of entertainment and commercial aviation, and I have scored 
a lot of work which I would have normally missed out on, merely by being 
contactable at the right time.
I get free voicemail and Short Message Service (SMS) for free from my 
provider, so even if somehow I am out of range or the phone happens to 
be switched off, I still get pager type messages or voicemail. That way 
I have managed to pick up business which would have been lost to me.
My cellphone has paid for itself many times over, both for business and 
convenience. I did not have to pay any deposit as I have a very good 
credit profile, however I would not bitch about paying even a large one, 
as the benefits far outweigh anything else that I can think of.
Cheers - Ziggy
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