Excellent article, Christine. I bought a new phone in 2020. My old phone went to my friend Gina who is a techie and gets all my old electronics. Buying a new phone was stupid. I don't like it as much as I did my old one. My only excuse for wasting that money is the pandemic. My purchase was during the few weeks Florida was locked down. Perhaps I was bored.

Gina used my old phone until last month. Cell towers around here are being switched to 5G and many 3G and 4G phones won't work anymore. The only cell tower in Gina's rural area switched and my old phone could no longer get a signal. My newish phone is also 4G, but there are enough 4G towers here in the city to keep it operating, although my signal in our home is weaker than it used to be.

Seems like the cell phone companies will always find a way to make us upgrade, even if it means revamping towers so older phones no longer work.