Old Cell Phones (2G & 3G)

[jaugu...@verizon.net]

Hi,

I have old Tracfones (2G & 3G) stored away in a box
with the batteries removed.

One of them (LG) has a Voice Recorder feature. This
is useful.

Does anyone know of any possible use for the other old
Tracphones?

Thank You in advance, John

[VanguardLH]

<jaugu...@verizon.net> wrote:

> I have old Tracfones (2G & 3G) stored away in a box with the batteries
> removed. One of them (LG) has a Voice Recorder feature. This is
> useful. Does anyone know of any possible use for the other old
> Tracphones?

Even if you don't have a carrier assigned to a phone, you can toss old
phones in your car, backpack, or whatever to make 911 calls. Towers are
required to forward 911 calls whether you have a cell plan, or not.

However, towers are unlikely to still have hardware that supports 2G.
"2G and 3G" is unclear if you have some old phones that are just 2G, are
just 3G, or do both 2G and 3G. 3G is still alive until dropped.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/30/3g-networks-ending/

That lists some dates for when 3G gets dropped, but those could merely
be proposed drops. You mentioned Tracfone, but they're an MVNO, so
unknown to us which carrier Tracfone assigned to you. Of course, you
have Tracfone phones, but not Tracfone service. That those old phones
have no cell plan means their usability devolves to the apps already
installed on them (that don't need a cellular or data connection).

As for which phones could be used for what, you did not list what apps
are installed on the phones that are still usable without a carrier.
Voice Recorder is a local app. We don't know what other non-web centric
apps you have on those phones.

Presumably you have phones that do have cellular service. Those working
(and continuing to work) phones don't have a voice recorder app, too?
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=voice%20recorder&c=apps lists
lots of voice recorder apps, including one from Google. Don't know why
you'd be toting around a dead phone (no service now, or not too long
from now) unless you toss it in your purse or briefcase to use only for
recording through its mic, like those single-purpose voice recorders
(e.g., https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=voice+recorder).

2G and 3G are cellular technologies. That's for calls, data, and text.
Supposedly each of those old phones have a wifi radio which makes them
usable as wifi phones. Lots of folks do that on-the-cheap: they don't
need cellular services if they use their phones at home to their wifi
router/cable modem, or at work, stores, or anywhere else that have
publicly accessible wifi hotspots. While I have cellular service on my
smartphone, I connect it to the wifi cable modem at home, and configure
the apps or network to prefer wifi over cellular. This works for me,
because I also have a Google Voice account which gives me a phone
number. Others can call my Google number, and I can call out using it,
to make calls, do texting, and wifi for data to do the Web. A Google
Voice account is free, but only available in the USA (don't know where
you are). When away from home, I can do VOIP (wifi) calling using wifi
hotspots that are public (some have passwords, so you have to ask if you
can use their hotspot). With cellular+wifi, I was able to get the
Google Voice app on my phone using cellular to do wifi calling. With
your dead phones (no cellular service), not sure how you would get any
VOIP apps on your old phones. There is also using Skype and other telco
services, but you only get Skype-to-Skype calls for free, and have to
pay to connect to/from landlines or cellular carriers.

Again, we don't know what apps are already on your old phones. You
could a month's worth of quota from Tracfone to reactivate those old
phones to get them setup for wifi, get the apps, and do VOIP calling,
and let the 1-month Tracfone service expire. That would work for your
old 3G phones. There are unlikely any towers in your area that still
have 2G hardware.

[Frank Slootweg]

Are these (Android) *smart*phones ("2G & 3G" could also mean 'dumb'/
'feature' phones)? If so, which Android versions?

If they are Android smartphones, people could have suggestions as to
non-cellular use for these phones.

In general, many people have Wi-Fi only tablets and a non-cellular -
i.e. Wi-Fi only - smartphone could be used in many cases where a Wi-Fi
only tablet is used.

When we know more about what you have and posibly want, I/we can post
some more specific suggestions.

[Bob F]

Dash cams?
Remote controls, if they have IR sender.
GPS.