Cell phone for elderly people

I am planning to upgrade my contract with Verizon to include my elderly
parents who are both in there upper 70's and have never had a cell
phone. I am looking for a phone that is easy to use and with the screen
font sizes easy to read. Been looking at the LG 5200 but was wondering
what your parents have been using with success.

netflix wrote:
> I am planning to upgrade my contract with Verizon to include my elderly
> parents who are both in there upper 70's and have never had a cell
> phone. I am looking for a phone that is easy to use and with the screen
> font sizes easy to read. Been looking at the LG 5200 but was wondering
> what your parents have been using with success.

my Dad is 74 and has had pretty good luck with the lg6100. I have the
worst time showing him how to do voicemail though, so we end up not
leaving messages

"netflix" <afas5518@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1144863087.679621.95390@e56g2000cwe.googlegro ups.com...
>I am planning to upgrade my contract with Verizon to include my elderly
> parents who are both in there upper 70's and have never had a cell
> phone. I am looking for a phone that is easy to use and with the screen
> font sizes easy to read. Been looking at the LG 5200 but was wondering
> what your parents have been using with success.
>

Got my 85 y/o mother-in-law an LG Migo for emergency use-- small, light,
simple to use with only 4 outgoing call buttons that you need to
pre-program, plus 911. Any incoming calls are accepted.

After the predictable opposition, she likes it now. She just keeps it in her
purse or glove compartment of her car.

Biggest issues were-- weekly recharging, "there's no dial tone" and
remembering to hit end when she finished with a call.

Jos.

There are some cell phones being marketed overseas for the elderly that
don't have all the fancy bells and whistles but have extra large
buttons (for example, see
http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?I...source=BROWSER and
http://wireless.3yen.com/2004-11-25/...r-the-elderly/ .,
However, I don't think any of these are available in the US. I ended
up getting my 81 year old mother a Virgin Mobile Kyocera K7. She
doesn't make a lot of calls, and although the pre-paid calling plan
requires purchasing at least 20 dollars of minutes every three months,
that's only a little over 8 dollars per month, cheaper than any other
alternative (and any unused minutes rollover). She does have problems
remembering how to hang up, though. Often she ends up hitting redial,
so I end up getting a call immediately back from her after she's
already put the phone in her purse.

StevenA wrote:
> There are some cell phones being marketed overseas for the elderly that
> don't have all the fancy bells and whistles but have extra large
> buttons (for example, see
> http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?I...source=BROWSER and


That looks interesting. I understand toy features are a revenue stream
for cellcos but there are people who can't use tiny phones with 500
features. I have a similar case in my family. My SIL has bad arthritis
in her hands and has trouble with little buttons and also is constantly
activiting/deactivating stuff when she squeezes the phone and presses
the side buttons.



> http://wireless.3yen.com/2004-11-25/...r-the-elderly/ .,
> However, I don't think any of these are available in the US. I ended
> up getting my 81 year old mother a Virgin Mobile Kyocera K7. She
> doesn't make a lot of calls, and although the pre-paid calling plan
> requires purchasing at least 20 dollars of minutes every three months,
> that's only a little over 8 dollars per month, cheaper than any other
> alternative (and any unused minutes rollover). She does have problems
> remembering how to hang up, though. Often she ends up hitting redial,
> so I end up getting a call immediately back from her after she's
> already put the phone in her purse.
>

On 12 Apr 2006 10:31:27 -0700, "netflix" <afas5518@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I am planning to upgrade my contract with Verizon to include my elderly
>parents who are both in there upper 70's and have never had a cell
>phone. I am looking for a phone that is easy to use and with the screen
>font sizes easy to read. Been looking at the LG 5200 but was wondering
>what your parents have been using with success.


Both my parents are in their 70's. I've had them on my plan for the
last several years and they've been through a few phones - I've kept
them with Nokias always so when the pone changed the interface is
alwasy the same.

Theyu're candy bar phones as I didn't think they uwould take too well
to a flip and they're nice and simple to use.

Currently they have the 6015 - ones I picked up cheap intended for the
PrePay Inpulse market - they activate fine and work great. No frills
- no camera and crap but they can receive text (don't usually do this
to them but they were interested in it during Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita last year as we're in Houston). Tri-mode too so you have analog
capabilities too.

http://cellphones.about.com/od/an_no...nnok_6015i.htm

In article <GKKdnbMjmuIi-6DZRVn-vA@adelphia.com>,
George <george@nospam.invalid> wrote:

> > There are some cell phones being marketed overseas for the elderly that
> > don't have all the fancy bells and whistles but have extra large
> > buttons (for example, see
> > http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?I...source=BROWSER and
>
>
> That looks interesting. I understand toy features are a revenue stream
> for cellcos but there are people who can't use tiny phones with 500
> features. I have a similar case in my family. My SIL has bad arthritis
> in her hands and has trouble with little buttons and also is constantly
> activiting/deactivating stuff when she squeezes the phone and presses
> the side buttons.

Another thought ... if you can program voice calling -- or even
speed-dialing -- fewer buttons need to be pushed.

sd

sd wrote:
> In article <GKKdnbMjmuIi-6DZRVn-vA@adelphia.com>,
> George <george@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>
>
>>>There are some cell phones being marketed overseas for the elderly that
>>>don't have all the fancy bells and whistles but have extra large
>>>buttons (for example, see
>>>http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?I...source=BROWSER and
>>
>>
>>That looks interesting. I understand toy features are a revenue stream
>>for cellcos but there are people who can't use tiny phones with 500
>>features. I have a similar case in my family. My SIL has bad arthritis
>>in her hands and has trouble with little buttons and also is constantly
>>activiting/deactivating stuff when she squeezes the phone and presses
>>the side buttons.
>
>
> Another thought ... if you can program voice calling -- or even
> speed-dialing -- fewer buttons need to be pushed.
>
> sd

Tried that, but when the fingers don't work so well it is difficult to
work little buttons. Her phone has voice dialing but you need to squeeze
the side button to activate it. She has troubles with the side buttons
for the same reason. She basically squeezes the phone so whatever button
happens to be contacted first that feature is enabled/disabled.

On Thu, 13 Apr 2006 05:24:06 -0500, Robert
<johnDOTredcornATgmailDOTcom> wrote:

>On 12 Apr 2006 10:31:27 -0700, "netflix" <afas5518@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>I am planning to upgrade my contract with Verizon to include my elderly
>>parents who are both in there upper 70's and have never had a cell
>>phone. I am looking for a phone that is easy to use and with the screen
>>font sizes easy to read. Been looking at the LG 5200 but was wondering
>>what your parents have been using with success.

I just combined my mom's Verizon standalone account into my AC2 Family
Plan (amazingly, Verizon didn't charge an early termination fee even
though they'll be making substantially less money under this new
arrangment.) She had trouble seeing the display on her old 3 year-old
Moto candy-bar style phone (not sure of the model) so I activated my
old LG VX4400 for her and she loves it. Big, bright display (relative
to her old one) and the keypad feels slightly 'sticky' due to a
rubberized (?) coating that's not on my 6100 keypad, leading her to
remark that the 4400 seemed sturdier and her fingers more sure on the
keys. She also finds the LG menu more intuitive than Moto's.

HTH
~Jacy