Things have moved on. I don't recognize the system you are describing (possibly something even older than I'm taking about here?) but most of the UK networks have been through a phase where they offered an app on your phone to access calls/texts via WiFi when outside coverage - this would still have been transparent from the other end (ie. the bank would have no knowledge that the text they sent was actually delivered via WiFi - it is just sent to the phone number as usual), but on your phone there were two separate bits of UI for cellular (provided by the phone) and for WiFi (provided by the app). This was inconvenient as texts could end up in one inbox or the other arbitrarily according to where you were at the time they arrived. More recently protocols have been standardised and with recent phones it's all integrated - the phone's UI for calls and texts just makes a cellular connection if available or a connection via WiFi if not, using the same security model based on secrets in the SIM card.
So really, I think you are conflating two issues:
- You don't like smartphones and think phones should be phones, with internet services on some bigger device. This is a reasonable point of view, though becoming a minority.
- You have no cellular coverage at home. This doesn't matter as you have WiFi. Possibly the lack of coverage in the area around your home makes mobile devices less useful (walking down to the village?) and so less worth spending money on.
It can be very cheap to run an extra smartphone for dedicated use - either wifi only, or get a
free data-only SIM (yes, it's really free: £0 to buy and £0/month for up to 200MB usage).
Just to be clear, we both have iPhone SEs, usually kept in the cars for emergency use and both have free PAYG SIMs, with O2, as we've found that O2 seems to have better coverage locally than some others. I'm far from being anti-mobile 'phones, I first bought one in 1990 (thing the size of a brick) and relied on using the things, both at work, and home, for many years. I only stopped using one when we moved to our last house, where there was no signal, so just got into the habit of only having it around for use when out and about, really just for emergency use. It's coincidental that we can't get a signal here, either, but not at all unusual in this area, there are fairly large villages that have no mobile coverage, something that seems to have got worse with some networks as the frequency bands used have got higher.
The bank problem was a real one, and apparently the bank weren't prepared to do anything about it. They just kept saying it was an EU Directive that had to be implemented by September 2019, and their decision was to only use a mobile 'phone secure message for the required second factor authentication. As talking to them was as much use as talking to a brick wall, we just switched banks, to a bank that uses a code from a card reader for the second factor in the authentication scheme (which works very quickly and reliably). Ironically, not long after we did this the government announced that, due to problems in rolling out the new authentication system, the deadline for introducing it was being postponed for a year.
You're right that owning a mobile 'phone is far from being value for money for us. Mine goes for weeks, sometimes months, without being turned on, simply because I don't have a use for it. I find the screen really hard to see without reading glasses, and also find my fat fingers constantly hit the wrong place on the screen. Buying a more expensive 'phone, with a bigger screen, seems a waste of money, given the infrequent use it would get. If anything, my inclination is to bin the iPhone and get a 'phone with a proper keypad, really just for ease of use in an emergency.
We do have wifi at home, although it is a bit slow and unreliable. Broadband here is just a bit too slow to watch video easily, as it just buffers every few seconds, and some websites take a long time to load. It takes about ten seconds for this page to finish loading, for example, so I have to remember not to start typing a reply until it's finished loading completely, otherwise the input gets lost (not unique to this forum, it seems to happen on others, too). For the same reason, I tend not to bother with some websites just because pages take too long to load, despite having changed settings to prevent things like video from autoplaying. With luck we may get FTTC here in the next year, which should make a significant difference, although we'll still have a couple of kms of copper between us and the place where we think the cabinet will go, so we're not likely to get really fast speeds.
I do find it a great deal easier to use a big screen, that's very true. I can easily see this 24" monitor without needing glasses, and likewise find it quick and easy to type on this backlit, Cherry switch, keyboard. The combination of tactile feedback and very clear key markings makes typing, for me, very much faster and easier than a touchscreen. My eyesight's not bad, but ageing has caused my near-vision to degrade. My arms aren't long enough to hold a mobile 'phone far enough away to be able to see the screen clearly without glasses, so I need to wear reading glasses when using it. This isn't as easy as it may seem, as when wearing reading glasses I can't then see clearly beyond a few feet. Fine when sitting down, but not great when standing up or walking around.
One reason I got rid of my last Prius was that the very small touch screen was getting more and more difficult to use, even with the varifocal glasses I use for driving. This was also one reason for opting to get an i3 as a stop-gap EV, as although the screen is fairly small, it is pretty clear and uses a control wheel and button for text and menu selection (much easier to use if your near vision isn't great, or is restricted to only the lower part of your field of vision). One of the attractions of the Model 3 was that big, clear, screen, and very easy to access menu system. I strongly suspect that Tesla may have had someone on the design team that was aware of the big advantage this gives to those of us with fairly poor near vision.
