Jim Parker pointed us to a BBC story on a spreading trend where people ask to be buried with their mobile phones.

“Martin Raymond, director of international trend-spotting think-tank, The Future Laboratory said that this had started off “in the realm of the urban myth”, but was fast becoming fact. … He explained that the first cases of people asking to be buried with their phone originated in Cape Town, where some people’s belief in witchcraft meant they feared that “they could fall under a spell, be put to sleep and actually be buried. “In fact, they were asking for the phones to be put into the coffins with them in case they woke up.”

According to Raymond, the most common reason is the desire “to be buried with the totems that they felt represented their lifestyle,”

In addition to the obvious practical problems of keeping the cell phones charged and having to continue paying for service, Jim points out some issues that call out for study:

“Not sure exactly what type of reception you might get from inside a coffin, not to mention 7 feet deep underground. Would there be a niche market for underground mesh networks, maybe trust and security would be a problem? Would anybody with caller id actually knowing the person really answer a call from said cell phone?”

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