I jerry-rigged an out-of-use cell phone to be my second alarm clock for when the batteries run out on my regular phone. It’s the first time I’ve turned it on since getting my current battery-glutton of a cell phone, so it came as a bit of a surprise to see that I had a message on it and that it was actually picking up a signal. Did they forget to turn it off?

I dialed the voicemail number, but it went to my wireless company’s headquarters instead. I hung up and dialed again, thinking I might have made a mistake, but the result was the same. It also dialed the WCHQ when I dialed the landline. So apparently they keep the phone active so that you can call the company and activate it for real if you need to.

I’m reminded of a story from some time ago about a man whose life was saved by his cell phone company’s telemarketer. Basically the guy had run out of prepaid cell phone minutes when he found himself stranded on a mountain. The cell phone company called him to ask him whether he wanted to buy more minutes. He said something to the affect of “Later, but right now I want off this dang mountain” and through the sales rep they got him some help.

I imagine having a phone that is always active but can only connect to the cell phone company may be a win-win proposition in that vein. In fact, I’m almost tempted to keep the phone in my car for emergencies except that (a) it would require me to buy a second alarm clock, which I am adamantly and illogically opposed to, and (b) I have enough trouble keeping the cell phone I actually use charged and two would be asking for it.

Meanwhile, though, the old phone has a voicemail frozen in amber. I did, however, finally discover what the Coffee Phone thing was all about. Apparently it shows up whenever I open a java script, such as my game or the Internet or any phone use that’s not actually using the phone portion of the phone.