We kept our phone number (number portability) and moved to just as crappy cell service. Most calls seldom get delivered but text messages get right though. We have many times gotten notification of missed calls or voice mail over a week after the call or message was left.
Digital text is expedient <<<
not unpacking that comment.
Reliability today has declined. Had a good personal example 8 or so years ago. Had arranged a Saturday visit, with close friends a couple of hours away, that we hadn't seen in way too long. The front end of our day went sideways, sent a text "Significant delay our end, don't wait Lunch, we are still coming but will be Late", then tried to get back on Schedule. Arrived to a (justifiably) Hangry buddy, asking What the HE double hockey sticks. Apologies...... chatting in their kitchen as oven warms up to heat a very late Lunch.
"Ding" on my buddy's phone..... the text I'd sent hours earlier, now arrives.
I KNOW better than to assume performance in these systems, but that ^ was a good reminder.
Not trying to contaminate ur's thread, but I see a parallel in the decline of wireline, with the abolition of ICE. Absolutely no recognition or allowance is made, for what had performed well in the Past, it's definitely a Don't Care, on the part of ramming this through.
There is tremendous value in having Everybody Always Carrying a Cell Phone. Much of the time, that high-value does not accrue to the individual.
Rgds, D.