Awhile ago I lost my smart phone. I didn’t want to pay to replace it so I just started conducting my business over Skype. It has actually been sort of liberating though to not have a cell phone. I’m thinking about not going back, at least for awhile.
If all goes according to plan though and I eventually move to TW, I don’t want to be any weirder than is otherwise avoidable. :loco:
So are there people in TW who don’t have a cell phone? I figure probably not but it can’t hurt to ask…
No, every single person in Taiwan has at least one cellphone, the government provides a free one at birth and replaces them over citizens lifetimes as they are outdated, lost, broken etc. You will be absolutely unique if you arrive without a cellphone, talk of the town, a trendsetter. How is your mandarin? I expect you will have some spots on prime time news and talk shows, probably be stopped on the street a lot so suggest take some lessons if you are not already.
There was a guy on here recently who didn’t wear matching socks.
Okay you guys win…
I just stumbled across an asus zenfone (I think asus is from Taiwan?). It has a dual sim card feature. That’s perfect O_o
In the borg that is Taiwan, not owning a cell phone is a crime punishable by sterilization (that is, if you’re not already sterile from consuming all that gutter oil). You could also be fired from your job (well, not actually fired fired, because then they’d have to give you severance pay) for the crime of not being on-call for your boss 24/7.
YOu wouldn’t be able to date for one thing. NO SMS = NO DATE. At least if you want to date someone under 30.
All the under 30 crowd is forever on their fones.
We are back from dinner (wife and i) and she is on her ipad (skype) talking to her sister in Indonesia. I am on the puter talking to nobody and the cat is beggin for food.
When we are at a cafe, I am often having to text my wife even though I am sitting across the table from her.
p.s. about fones we are certainly inundated with used fones.
I have 4 dumb fones sitting unused in my drawer . ONe active and the others not working. And currently have 3 smart fones. One active and the other two inactive but workable if set up with a fone company.
My wife is smarter, she sells off her smart fones when she gets new ones.
When she got her iphone she got rid of her samsung 4 something.
[quote=“tommy525”]YOu wouldn’t be able to date for one thing. NO SMS = NO DATE. At least if you want to date someone under 30.
All the under 30 crowd is forever on their phones.
We are back from dinner (wife and I) and she is on her ipad (skype) talking to her sister in Indonesia. I am on the puter talking to nobody and the cat is beggin for food.
When we are at a cafe, I am often having to text my wife even though I am sitting across the table from her.[/quote]
Excuse me, I’m someone 
I realize it was a silly question. Of course everyone is on a cell phone. I was just bored I guess. I love not having a cell phone, though. I’m going to order a zenfone from HK or TW and let it take a month to arrive while I relax in peace and quiet.
I have stayed away from smartphones so far but I will probably give in this month. My dumb phone is now dying and I could use a smartphone (mapping GPS when I’m exploring).
What year is this, 1998? 
You wouldn’t be able to date without LINE and Facebook, but the only people who send SMS these days are telecom operators reminding you to pay your bills.
I’ve been trying to hold out as long as possible, but the pressure’s mounting. “Why aren’t you on Line?” “Uh…I don’t have a smart phone.” “You don’t have a smart phone!?! What’s wrong with you???” Eventually, we’ll all be members of the Low Head Tribe.
“Whats ur line it’s easier to talk on there”
“Sorry I don’t have a mobile yet”
“Wow you don’t have a phone, that’s so cool!”
If you’re ok with that and can just talk to girls on the street, it’s ok to not have a phone I don’t have one either 
I sort of gave up my mobile phone when summer began. I bought an iPod touch and subscribed to TaiwanStar’s 3G unlimited package, which I stuck into a Wifi Egg. I dropped my 3G plan from my original Taiwan Mobile, and stuck the SIM into an old Nokia phone. I forget the phone at home once or twice a week. Worse, it’s so old, I don’t hear the ringer and I no longer put it in my pocket to feel it when I put it on Silent mode.
So I almost don’t have a cellphone - if you don’t count the 3G Wifi Egg. And for most of the time, not having a mobile phone doesn’t matter. It’s like my home landline - the only calls we get there are from the phone company reminding us we forgot to pay our landline phonebill. LINE keeps me in touch with people in Taiwan, and the iPod handles email, Viber, WeChat, and Skype perfectly for everyone I keep in touch with outside of Taiwan.
However, my boss and my wife both complain that I never pick up their calls. It was funny at first (I LINE them all the time anyway 
), but after more than a couple complaints, I finally took the hint and have just ordered a new mobile phone (a new Nokia feature phone). If not for them, I would consider not using my regular cell phone. Could I completely lose the phone and not be affected? Maybe.
But I could not sacrifice the Wifi Egg - my routine would be very different if I didn’t have that 3G connection. I was in Shanghai recently, and one of my goals was to re-activate my China Mobile number. I actually visited 3 different China Mobile customer service offices, but because the queues were so long and my free time was short each day, I kept running out of time. When I finally reactivated the number halfway through my stay, there was a huge difference being online all the time than jumping from wifi to wifi network (it is annoying that to join most of the free networks, you have to provide a phone number to get a password; but cool to know that you didn’t need a local number most of the time to get a password)
What on earth is a wifi egg?
I did two years without one here. They’re as necessary as a scooter. Some will tell you they’re absolutely necessary.
The annoying thing is when you get off the island and want to access email, it is difficult to do without a phone but often you also need a local SIM card. My bank at home did the cellphone number as ID thing and I politely told them where to go. They assumed because I had a phone that it would be a smartphone.
I can’t be the only one who finds this really annoying.
I do ninety-nine percent of my communication with family and friends here and back home using my iPad (which is admittedly very close to the same product as the iPhone). LINE works on it. Locals are often taken back knowing I have this app but not a smartphone.
What year is this, 1998? You wouldn’t be able to date without LINE and Facebook, but the only people who send SMS these days are telecom operators reminding you to pay your bills.[/quote]
There is a place called the United States where LINE is not Big at all brother man! 
I used LINE to chat with my now wife when she was in INDO, but here in the USA, its mostly text back and forth.
My coworkers and i text instead of calling each other for business and i text with my customers too.
SMS is big here in the USA.
But yes, in taiwan it would be LINE. I still have LINE installed on my smartfone but never use it now.
I know people that have never had a cell, and they’re doing perfectly fine.
Although, I have a smart phone, I barely use the phone part of it.
I don’t have 3G or 4G and have no plans on moving from just having 2G at 200NT month. It would be a waste of money if I did.