Cellphone Camera Questions

[oldjones]

Never even thought of that. Thanks! I wonder if they will even work because they are CDMA phones i.e. do not use SIM cards. I imagine they should still be able to call 911? I believe there was a time when the telcos used to charge people for 911 service.

Still do, that's why we have the service, account holders pay for it. But any phone can access it free, paid up or not. Even payphones as far as I know.

However, a CDMA phone may indeed be the equivalent of a landline after Bell terminates your service; Dead, because there's nothing receiving it's signal and feeding it to the 911 operators.

I'd imagine shelter staff would be up on which phones are only good for recycling.

 

[TeeJay]

Question: What do you guys do with your old cellphones?

I worked for a phone company at one point in my life
Have owned thousands of devices

Donations usually
It's great you give away some crappy 6 month old phone and get a tax receipt for it
Phone costed $0 upfront so anything credited back is gravy

If it is older than 3 years it can have many uses, everything from women's shelters (911 service) to the Toronto Zoo (parts)
Pick whatever suits your interests and get money back from the CRA

Just be careful of tax shelters as many can be outright frauds (CRA even has warnings on their webpage yet people still stupid enough to try)
If you know a phone is only worth $400 and someone offers you a tax credit for $4000 then RUN
There are enough legit charities out there

 

[TeeJay]

Never even thought of that. Thanks! I wonder if they will even work because they are CDMA phones i.e. do not use SIM cards. I imagine they should still be able to call 911? I believe there was a time when the telcos used to charge people for 911 service.

CDMA still working for now
Network is due to be decommissioned in 2017 (and thats assuming no government interference)

However, a CDMA phone may indeed be the equivalent of a landline after Bell terminates your service; Dead, because there's nothing receiving it's signal and feeding it to the 911 operators.

???
Old CDMA phones have a built in subscriber ID module
Newer CDMA phones use a RUIM
Brand new CDMA phones use a SIM
Just because Bell does not service them does not mean CDMA is dead... second largest US carrier is happily deploying them along with many other countries (eg China where CDMA technology is still being deployed)
Bell/Telus dropped CDMA because they insisted on getting iPhone (which is hilarious in hindsight as Apple now builds CDMA iPhones, although with much later release dates and fewer units)

iPhone CDMA Model Numbers
iPhone 5: A1429 (* World GSM & CDMA)
iPhone 4S: A1387 (* dual band CDMA & GSM world phone)
iPhone 4: A1349

 

[SkyRider]

CDMA still working for now
Network is due to be decommissioned in 2017 (and thats assuming no government interference)

Do 3rd world countries use CDMA?

 

[TeeJay]

Do 3rd world countries use CDMA?

1st, 2nd, and 3rd world do
In many ways CDMA has actually SURPASSED GSM technologies