JitterBug? [telecom]

It's what it looks like, an MVNO aimed at old people. The phone is dual band CDMA which means the carrier is Verizon, and it has a variety of features intended to be useful to people with limited vision or mobility, e.g., large buttons and handset, simulated dial tone, live operator, and an addon service that lets you call a nurse for advice (really) as well as the usual stuff like bluetooth.

The prices are not bad, considering. $15 for 50 min/mon, $20 for 100 min/mo, $30 for 200 day/500 night, etc. No contract, it's month to month, cancel whenever you want, resume service later if you want.

R's, John

Visit for info; they're on the Verizon network.

It appears to be a service catering to senior citizens with a good, no nonsense phone that's easy to use.

Flipping through its manual, I found this factoid on page 30:

" April 3, 2009 is the 36th anniversary of the first public phone call made on " a portable cell phone. That call was placed by Martin Cooper who created " Jitterbug® with his wife, Arlene Harris, the founder of Jitterbug.

I have been tempted but have never taken action. I use my telephone as a telephone and the little size and little keypad I think is a nuisance. Yes, I'm a senior citizen. I often have to use my fingernail on the buttons because otherwise [I] push two or three buttons at once.

Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com

..........

I have had the recent (mis)fortune of having to set up IMAP e-mail access on some iPhones for clients, and I was getting extremely frustrated with the touch screen for inputting data as it would invariably not match up too well with the size of my thumb and select the character next to the one I actually wanted.

At least with a "normal" keypad there is some physical difference between the keys, on these over-crowded touchscreens there is just "hope for the best" a lot of the time.

I don't think the iPhone will take off in the seniors market, not unless they have a special app that makes it much more easier to configure than it currently is.

-- Regards, David.

David Clayton Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have.

Re the JitterBug phone:

My encounter with this phone was via a somewhat handicapped (post-stroke) but still mobile senior citizen who has one. It's just a bit larger than the typical small cellphone, but still pocket size; the buttons are definitely larger; I gather the interaction with the company, and especially the availability of a real "operator" if you just hit "0", are quite good; and he's very happy with it.