I'm over 50 and remember well what life was like before even cash machines existed never mind the internet - my point was that if everything disappears instantly with no warning then most people who aren't sat at home watching Bargain Hunt or Middle Class Homes In The Country will struggle at least a bit :shrug:


Give me a month and I could sort it out - no warning about it though is difficult..

When the cash machines first appeared you got a single use card that you put in the machine and got the money out. The machine ate my father's card and didn't give the money so he went in and saw the manager who's response was "it does that with mine as well!" :D

Actually YES!

If you are that reliant on a mobile phone get a dual sim phone on two different networks. In truth most people can cope for a day or two without.

Yes they are very handy to have and make our busy lives a lot easier but if you damage or loose your phone you would cope.

There was something about it today on Jeromy Vine today and the usual ''I lost a lot of money'' brigade were ringing in claiming they would have made a million if the network had not gone down. 30 years ago hardly anybody had one and the world worked then as far as I can remember.

The toilets at work, or should I say social media interaction cubicles were strangely less utilised yesterday.

They are often all engaged in complete silence for ages. No sounds of exertion or relief to be heard.

In the '80s in my railway days whoever was the inspector on call for any incidents used to get to haul the "mobile" phone around with them. It was commonly referred as the talking brick.

In the early days of the ATM, with single use card, someone I know was walking home after a good drink. He couldn't decide whether to get a kebab or a taxi home, he didn't have enough for both.
He bought the kebab, went to the ATM,( they had Perspex screens that lifted when a card was inserted those days). Put his card in, the screen raised, he put his kebab near the keypad, placed his card in the slot, the machine ate the card, the screen came back down, with his kebab behind the screen. No card, no kebab, no money, no taxi home.
That's life !!

I remember phones when it was the battery in one hand and the handset in the other, come to think of it, I remember the time before mobile phones :)


macafee2

O2 was working fine here yesterday for voice, was it just data that failed?

My first mobile phone was one of those - a Motorola 4800X. It used to be fitted in my successive Austin Montego cars which I got a new one of every 3 months. The handset was mounted on the facia and you unclipped it almost like a normal phone to make a call.

Those early phones were elegant and special - modern ones do nothing for me personally.