> I turned it on briefly to receive a confirmation code that I needed in order to maintain that phone plan itself, and once spiritually but not literally - when going on a remote and slightly dangerous hike, friends insisted that I bring along a few communication devices that they had for emergency comms and use them to check in once every few hours.

It is funny to have witnessed the conversion from the default state of people is being not connected digitally to being connected digitally and once people start living with the 24/h connection they start the perceive simply being out of cell network as carrying inherent risk.

I've noticed people reacting to going hiking beyond cell networks with a "but that's dangerous!" response. Being outside of cell networks was the natural state of being for the vast majority of human existence!