History Main / CellPhonesAreUseless

* Done somewhat realistically in the season 3 finale of ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' as the criminals blow up the cell towers around the lab prior to their invasion of the CSI lab. It's also shown that this does not go unnoticed - reception is restored before the episode's end. Unfortunately, this leads to a KindaBusyHere moment when Mac's girlfriend finally gets through to him as he's sneaking up on the BigBad.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS8E6 Hidden Depths]]", Barnaby and Scott get locked in a cellar where there is no cell reception.

* Inverted beautifully in ''Film/PhoneBooth''. How else could he get help?
** He was using the phone booth in the first place because his smart wife (who suspects that he is cheating on her) checks the phone bill.

* It's even older than THAT, according to Tom Standage's book [[https://tomstandage.wordpress.com/books/the-victorian-internet The Victorian Internet]]. The introduction of the telegraph in Britain killed -- among other things -- the long-established "young lovers flee to Scotland to marry" trope, which was fairly common both in potboiler fiction and in real life until about the 1850's. Scotland permitted oath-marriages but England didn't, so young lovers could escape disapproving parents by taking the train to Scotland and swearing wedding vows to each other as soon as they were over the border. The telegraph gave parents the power to wire ahead and have the authorities pluck the kids off the train while they were still in England. The popular press assailed the telegraph as a "killer of romance", but how often it actually happened is open to debate.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Hidden Depths", Barnaby and Scott get locked in a cellar where there is no cell reception.

* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': The absence of Cell phones when they could have solved a lot of problems is {{justified}}. Not only do high concentrations of magic [[WalkingTechbane canonically play merry hob with transistorized devices]], but all but the last chapter of the last book take place in the 1990s (each book is set approximately ten years behind its publishing date, though the textual indications of this aren't obvious and the films don't explicitly point this out either). Hogwarts is also someplace very deep in Scotland (which even in 2023 [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12720981/mobile-phone-not-spot-Interactive-map-4G-5G-signal-vodafone.html is plagued with cell phone dead zones]]). While cell phones existed, people have a tendency to forget that they didn't really become ubiquitous until the next decade, and service was patchy at best. [[FandomBerserkButton Franchise fans are understandably upset about having to explain this tidbit again and again.]]

* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': The absence of Cell phones when they could have solved a lot of problems is {{justified}}. Not only do high concentrations of magic [[WalkingTechbane canonically play merry hob with transistorized devices]], but all but the last chapter of the last book take place in the 1990s (each book is set approximately ten years behind its publishing date, though the textual indications of this aren't obvious and the films don't explicitly point this out either). While cell phones existed, people have a tendency to forget that they didn't really become ubiquitous until the next decade, and service was patchy at best. [[FandomBerserkButton Franchise fans are understandably upset about having to explain this tidbit again and again.]]

* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': The absence of Cell phones when they could have solved a lot of problems is {{justified}}. Not only do high concentrations of magic [[WalkingTechbane canonically play merry hob with transistorized devices]], but all but the last chapter of the last book take place in the 1990s (each book is set approximately ten years behind its publishing date, though the textual indications of this aren't obvious). While cell phones existed, people have a tendency to forget that they didn't really become ubiquitous until the next decade, and service was patchy at best.