Texting also tends to work better than voice calls when you're in a temporarily densely populated area.  For example at a football game, I'll have trouble making a call but texting works great.  

Not sure how long ago you negotiated your contract but it seems that lately the plans are giving away a bunch of text messages for free and even some carriers are doing the unlimited for free with bundles that cost the same as a bare bones contract a few years ago. They won't tell you the new and better plans unless you ask so you may want to call and see what they can do for you.

Twitter or some kind of instant messaging would be a better option for SHTF. I have Verizon and they have excellent coverage outside of my house. I have very spotty cell coverage inside the house (due to aluminum foil house wrap) so texting is really the only option most of the time. I have found that you don't always get a reply sent instantly. If you don't have any service at the instant they send you a reply, the network saves the message in queue and will try sending it later. I have received messages 1 hour, 6 hours, and even 12 hours after they were sent. This happens when I am backpacking too. I can have 1-3 bars and not be able to make a call, but can still fire off a few texts at the top of the mountain, but I may not get a reply until I check a few hours later.

You can tell when it was sent because it will say at the end of your message:
Saved 12:01pm
Received 1:01pm

Some kind of instant messaging would ensure your communications would work, as long as you have service, with no worry of delays.

This is pretty much where I'm at. I don't sit and chat on it, but I don't need a phone call to set a time for lunch or figure out what needs to be picked up at the store. By texting it gives everyone some time to think about it and reply when they have a moment rather than having to figure it out right then.
I also remember after 9/11 and during/after Katrina that texting was MUCH better. It might take 20 minutes to an hour to come through, but it generally made it. We used it extensively to coordinate so we knew when someone was delayed or was going to need extra hands for something. It was out for about a day if I remember right, but was one of the first services to return with any kind of reliability.

I've got unlimited text and data, and share a fairly small number of minutes with my housemate. With mobile to mobile being free we pretty much don't use minutes anyway.

Same after Katrina.    For weeks.     No calls in our out, but I could text.  


Also I drove out far enough to get a good signal to check my 45 voice mails, and figured it would be a good idea to change my voice mail greeting to something along the lines of "Hey this is landraider.....  I'm OK, and XXYYZZ blhablha"

This put QUITE a few of my family, and friends minds at rest.   They quite literally did not know if I was dead, alive, homeless etc.

Two weeks ago in Jackson after the tornado text or phones didn't work.  even though it showed all bars on the phone.  All over the area.  My 2m radio was working however..

I don't know that I'd say it's better. It's just as unlikely to fail as voice communications.


SMS works because messages are sent over the control channel. As long as your phone knows there's a tower there it should (theoretically) be delivered. The odds of being able to still send text messages when you can't actually get a voice channel are pretty good.

One downside to SMS is that it isn't a guaranteed delivery mechanism. As you've mentioned delivery may also be delayed. I'd still rather rely on that than Twitter or FB which will run into similar issues as voice.

I use about 5000 texts per month and maybe an hour total of talk time.

Good to know this won't likely change come SHTF

This is true. During Ike, text worked fine in my area when voice was a no-go. Monitoring Ham 2 meter was the way to find open gas stations.