On the subject of Verizon phones shutting down, a couple weeks ago my Kyocera 7135 quit making outgoing calls. But it was not due to a broken phone. (I guess that since it's an expensive phone they let customers talk to technicians who know what they're doing before trading them in.)
For some reason my phone spontaneously decided to sign onto a Sprint cell tower. The tell-tale symptoms were: Much stronger signal than I'm used to for that location, and the time of day being 6 AM instead of 2 PM.
The first technician I spoke to attributed no significance to the time of day difference, but after we went through all she could think of, she transferred me to someone who was going to take my info for a new phone. Instead we retraced a few steps, and re-initialized the phone's identity, at which point it called home to the proper mama and has been fine ever since.
-wdc
"Like my father before me, I shall remain 5 years old till the day I die!"
P.S. I think this is my first posting to Telecom digest, but I've been an avid reader since the early days (Hi Pat! Hi Jon!). Thanks for a GREAT digest!
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am glad you like this little digest of news and opinion each day. Having messages like yours makes it very worthwhile for me. And yes, often times just a simple reset of your phone will clear up those problems like you described. PAT]