After a great turnout in 2021, CT COMM will be collecting old mobile devices again this year. If you have old cell phones or tablets taking up space in junk drawers or cabinets, you can bring them to CT COMM for the Second Annual Secure the Call Drive.

CT COMM is volunteering our help to assist Secure the Call, a 501(c)(3) non-profit which collects used and unwanted cell phones to redistribute them to community partners nationwide. Old cell phones and devices will be turned into 911 emergency-only phones for those in need.

In these cases, the old phones and devices are repurposed to be re-used by community partners that include, but are not limited to, senior citizen centers, domestic women’s shelters, police and sheriff’s departments. Phones that are collected but are broken or unusable are properly recycled and not sent to a landfill.

“Secure the Call is an organization that is not only ensuring that 911 services are available to some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, but also working to recycle phones that aren’t able to be put into new hands,” said Tim Bolander, CEO and General Manager of CT COMM.

The Secure the Call barrel is located in CT COMM’s lobby, at 126 Scioto St., Urbana until June 30, 2022. Anyone can bring any type of cell phone (with or without the charger) regardless of their age or condition.

The barrel is secure and upon receipt, Secure the Call representatives remove all SIM cards and shred them, then hook the devices up to a machine that electronically wipes out all information and digitally resets them to their original factory settings. From there, each device is able to make a 911 call – any cell phone will call 911 anywhere within the USA without a service connection from a specific network provider. All 911 calls will always go through (as long as the phone is charged).

“CT COMM is excited for the opportunity to recycle old, unused mobile devices and get them into the hands of people who could truly use them,” said Bolander.