Texts were able to go through

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Describe a significant moment in your life that involved a mobile phone.

"9/11/2001. I’m stuck in Toronto at the film festival. No NY area code (routed) cell phones are working. I had a brand new Nokia 8260 and had already discovered a 'text message' feature which I had previously used to surprise friends. No service providers had text plans yet, or was in testing mode. On that fateful day, I tried texting friends and lo and behold, texts were able to go through. I taught other friends to see if their phones could also send texts. Before 9/11 none of them knew about texting."

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