Ok, my wife’s phone got destroyed. Don’t ask, but it wasn’t her fault.
Here is the good news. I made a conscious choice to be on a GSM based phone. As a result, it was easy to get her up and running on another phone. I simply pulled the SIM card and plugged it into a used Nokia phone I purchased from some guy. While I bought it from him, I tested calling her number.
It just worked.
I like it when stuff like this happens. I like it when there are standards. Her old phone was Sony Ericsson on ATT. Her new used phone was Nokia after the Cingular merger. Everything worked.
My phone and her phone will probably work anywhere in the world.