[Nick]

I have a pretty nifty Nokia 6101b cell that snaps covert pics down at the mall, does ambush
video clips of the neighbor's late-night pool parties, picks up FM broadcasts and probably
lots of other neat-o stuff as well, but, nonetheless, I still harbor several deep-seated fears of
owning a cell phone.

1. I will lose (not loose) my cell, or it will be drowned or accidentally damaged
to the extent that my extensive and oh-so-important personal phone list will be
gone forever or even longer, whichever comes first!

2. Someday I will switch to a new phone with a different technology whereby I
cannot move my contacts from my old model to the new phone via IR transfer,
and will be forced to do a onesy-twosy number-by-number manual entry of my
list that will take at least two weeks!

3. The long-threatened & dreaded "cell phone directory" will become a reality.

So I'm looking for a neat-o solution to resolve 1 & 2, but I will have to rely on the integrity and
public-mindedness of the FCC and those big cellular companies keep my cell number out a
massive cell phone directory that is accessible to half of the six billion humans on the planet.

Here are two hi-tech companies with simple, portable cellular phone book backup solutions,
either of which might possibly allay my fears:

CellStik www.sparktech.com "a fast, simple solution that protects users from the ordeal of
losing (not loosing) a cellphone and every name and number on it."

Back-Up Pal www.backup-pal.com "for the 99% of cellular phone users who don't currently
backup their cellular phone books."

I'm sure there must be others.

 

[harsh]

Have you checked to see if the phone came with some sort of a backup solution?

Also, the SIM cards are often quite a bit more robust than the phone itself, so it may not be as critical as you think.

 

[Steve Mehs]

SIM cards are awesome and the best back up devices around for phones. I can get any Nextel phone, slide my card out and insert it into another phone and bam! that is now my phone. All my contacts, info, and some minor settings are transferred over, don't have to call up and activate the phone. Listening to podcasts about technology and such, I don't know why most people assume only GSM providers do SIM cards. Nextel uses Motorola’s iDen and has been using SIM cards for years now.

 

[Nick]

I didn't know the SIM cards held all that info - I'll keep it in mind, unless my phone is ever lost or stolen. :shrug:

As far as carrier-specific solution, here's what PCMag had to say about T-Mobile:

T-Mobile: Sidekick users can back up their data on a server, but T-Mobile cell-phone users are currently out of luck. The company doesn't offer any backup options, so your best bet is to use a third-party (solution).

Even if T-Mobile had a back-up option, I'm sure they would charge a monthly fee for the service.

 

[DonLandis]

People who use PDA phones have a good solution too. I do a daily backup of my PDA phone's system to both my active sync laptop as well as to the SD mini 2G card. When my phone suffered a problem last Spring and I needed a warranty replacement, I just inserted the SD card did a restore and everything was as it was on the original phone. No different than a ghost image of your hard drive on a computer.
The solution for backup - restore is available for windows Mobile 5 OS. No fees and the software was under $20 when I bought it. Active sync comes with the phone.

When I had my IPAQ 6315 on T-Mobile, it came with backup software application. Again, no fees.