Cell phones could exist in that universe; anything reasonable should be able to exist there... but it would have a 50's aesthetic to the design; even an Ipod.

When I think about phones, I know cell phones are out of the question because, what are the odds the satelites are still functioning...And two, who got the phone lines repaired...?

Man, talking about drawing the short straw.

"Bob, you and Phil go out and get those phone lines fixed."

A week later.

"Steve, Bob and Phil are dead, you're up."

Radio-phones. (Also Hams and CBs.)

Well, in Fallout 3 you found CB's and Hams all over the place, so that is probably the standard means of long range communication.

Both, I think, could not.

Read http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Divergence

No sing of the invention of the processing chip.

Unless you agree with cathode ray tube cell phone (like a pip boy), and huge reel tape machine Ipod taking the space of a bed (memory needs space).

Selfie with deathclaws

You've got a new message from Preston Garvey!

"hey playa where r u going m8? btw I gonna pop some rats l8er. c u at concord"

#JustFalloutThings

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/ToddHowardampco_zps24991817.jpg has it wrong.

Fallout's setting was what they predicted of the future; not what they were capable of making in the past. There is no reason that a transistor or a pocket telephone should need to have been invented in the 50's to have access to it 200 years later. Fallout 2 had Desert Eagle pistols; those were patented in 1983.

*However superfluous, they http://www.visualnews.com/2014/11/24/phone-tomorrow-1956-got-almost-everything-right/ ~(and transistors too; they built one in the 40's).

**One thing though... Tubes are more radiation resistant, and it certainly does seem the case in all of the games, that the popular components were anolog ones.

*** Something to consider: The Pipboy in VB and FO3... If that's a CRT tube... How does http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/NuColorShutterCRT_001_zpsaxjd5sch.jpg fit on an arm cuff?

phones were probably one of the first things to degrade and break down in the years after the bombs fell so even if there where phones they would probably not work due to lack of working land lines. the only place I could see having phones is in the heart lands of ncr territory where the apocalypse is pretty much over minus mutants and radiation.

NCR has (had) a power grid; I assume New Vegas did also. That's harder to have and maintain than phone lines. They should have radio communications ~commonly. Fallout and Fallout 2 both had hand-held http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/2043B_radio; and also wireless http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Bug_%28item%29.

I could see your point if this was The Walking Dead where there is no manpower to operate that technology for obvious reasons. In the Fallout universe, I don't see how a form of communication can be considered a luxury.

One need would be to warn others of current threats or dangers. Settlements may be focused on themselves but you mean to tell me there are no transplants who migrated to another settlement with friends, family or associates back in their hometown who they would still communicate with? Raiders, Super Mutants and the Legion were all settlements concerns in the Fallout universe.

In New Vegas, Ghost sends you to NIpton to find out what's going on. Goodspringers ask you to aid Ringo in fighting the Powder Gangers. No one knows what happened but you and the people involved but somehow Mr. New Vegas (the radio DJ) almost instantly broadcasts your feats over the airwaves. You get bad karma from stealing with no witnesses around and you are suddenly shunned with that faction. How is that possible for word and news to travel that fast almost directly after it happens? Brahman caravans? HAM radio?

Lol, with a high sneak level, deathclaws would be like... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjPpX1g1juo

Lol, I was more referring to LAN's like Vault Tech's interweb.

Who said anything about cell phones or HDTV's? Central hubs are a waste of resources but unexplored and long abandoned vaults with salvageable technology just sitting there up for grabs is not a waste of resources? Vault 3 in New Vegas was the only time I've seen an abandoned vault being put to some use, even if it was by a bunch of psycho junkies.

Also, not every faction is necessarily 'helping' everyone to survive with mankind's best interests in mind. For that to happen, you would at least need some sort of democracy. Every faction or group of people in Fallout has their own agenda and ideology that only works for people who share whatever similar interests, but usually at a cost. Such as the NCR providing security but at the cost of heavy taxation.

We can accept that fantasy technology like Power Armor, robot butlers, Liberty Prime and robot AI actually ruling the New Vegas strip over humans, can exist in an alternate future of the 1950's without much explanation except 'scientific research for military use' but will debate logic to explain even a primitive version of a phone existing as 'complicated'.

Prior to the 1950's, it's true that phone companies went after contracts from the military over private citizens, but they also just started experimenting with push button phones. So phones were definitely a 'thing' in the 50's.

You make an interesting point about the raiders but I don't see deathclaws huddling up, formulating master plans of luring people to a central location by purposely digging up telephone lines while passing up easy, nearby prey to rivaling cazadors.

Refresh my memory of examples of portable 2 way communication shown in Fallout 3 or New Vegas.

Honestly, I can't see much of phones in the present Fallout universe. Organizations such as the NCR military, BoS, Enclave, etc. need that sort of contact, but nobody else really does. Everybody lives is relatively insular communities. Being able to make radio contact with other communities is about as much contact as anybody would be comfortable with establishing, since anything more would require setting up towers and lines across the wasteland, and maintaining them. Radios work just fine.

The fact that they have lasers means that they could have laser communication; either by direct beam tower to tower, or satellite (if one is working), or a fiber network.

Also recall that Vault-Tec has a national network, and it was online in Fallout and Fallout 2. Technically the Enclave should have been able to read the PC's pipboy remotely ~if they knew which node it was. They controlled that network. The opening intro to Fallout 2 was them having sent the 'all clear' signal to open the vault door.

Simple, the guy that invented the ultra-shallow CRT went to the same college as the crack scientist who made portable nuclear cold fusion for use in cars, armor, power sources and ammunition a reality in the fallout series.

In Fallout's post apocalyptic setting, F3 and NV's HAM radios are a dream. You don't have to rely on phone lines, cell towers and what not. As long as you have air, you can have HAM radios.

guess star trek was never showed on tv ub tthe fallout universe, therefore nobody had the bright indea to develop cellphones

Please hold.....your call is important to us and you have been placed on the queue, our next available operator will take your call shortly.

.

.

.

.

200 years on, I'm sorry there are no available operators at this time please try again later.

Even if phones did exist pre-war there is no chance in hell they would work now after nuclear armageddon.

Normal guys? - No, probably not (well, there's some people who know how to make things that aren't tied to one of the larger factions, but those are very few in number and they don't need something like the internet anyway...), but factions like the BOS, the Enclave and The Institute? - They could make something like that, if they really wanted (but they probably prefer radio communication (less easy to sabotage than cables!))

greetings LAX

This. Radio has all sorts of advantages in the "blasted wasteland" scenario.... it doesn't need lots of infrastructure for it to work, it's relatively low-tech compared to other options, etc.

The same way as it does in Van Buren. http://trzynasty-schron.net/obrazki/van_buren/vb_pipboy_3000.jpg Oh ... Black Isle has it wrong... these guys shouldn't touch the franchise ever again, right? Getting something that fundamental wrong .

Errr yeah, that's what he said.

This. The long wavelength AM & FM radio waves reflect off The ionosphere layers in the atmosphere. The height of these layers vary daily. So the higher the layers, the more likely the transmitted radio signal would be deflected a farther range/distance back to the ground. Which is why you can pickup a NY radio station in Nevada or even California here in the U.S.

A FAR more efficient means of communication in a post fallout, retro-futuristic universe than a land line. So I'd expect to see this featured in a mod. But only over a localized scale like the area coverage of an advanced community like Vault City, region around the NCR Capitol, or the Citadel. It's not cost effective or economically efficient on larger economies of scale.

Heck wireless comm is what's rapidly putting traditional landline carriers out of business. Take a legacy carrier like AT&T v newcomer Verizon. If AT&T doesn't find a way to match Verizon's wireless capacity nationwide, then it could become obsoleted.

Yep overlooked it. But what most people (even Gizmo) constantly forget that the great war happens in 2077. So on the one side we have a world that is like how people in the 50's imagined the future and on the other side is there 60 years of additional tech development if I really want to compare it with our reality (which is in the end nonsense as we all know, because the timeline has split).

So taking a pic of of a CRT and say it isn't possible, sorry is more then uninformed even back in 1983 we already had that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYZA0TZkjgA and yes there is a CRT inside. I had one.

Looks more that Gizmo has it wrong here and not Black Isle or Bethesda.

Well yeah, you were clearly too eager to try and talk down an old fan you thought you had the edge on.

There has to be in-universe consistency as far as I am concerned. If something "didn't occur" to the pre-war scientists then it should to the post-war either. That's the world, that's what makes it different. Of-course you can't have a world of hover robots were nobody twigged on how to make a flat-screen TV, so you have to ignore the reality of it and instead stick to a theme.

You didn't read my edit about Sinclair as it seems and yes some people are constantly looking for a reason to blame Bethesda of anything even if it has no base at all. (and btw. most of them are also old enough to remember the 80's like me ).