I am told this is good.

I am not a gadget guy. Not at all. If we stopped the technical world at “e-mail” … I would be fine. I am not waiting breathlessly for an iPad. I’ve never had an iPhone. I generally prefer someone else reset my watch when daylight savings rolls (or unrolls) around.

So I was annoyed when my LG cell phone … broke. The backlight went out, and I couldn’t see anything on the screen.

That meant I had to have a new one. Or had to have Leah buy me a new one.

After six months here, we had long since stopped wondering how guys who live on maybe $200 a month … all have cell phones. (Mobiles, as the Brits call them.)

Well, they all have cell phones because you can get a new one … unlocked … with no need for a phone plan … for $27. It works here and in Europe.

I have one now. A Samsung thing that is so light and small that it would seem to be a poorly made toy.

It is a phone. Really. I already have made a call on it.

It has an FM radio, a flashlight, a mobile tracker, an SOS message and an app for calling yourself … such as when you want to escape a meeting or a bore. You “press the navigation key in idle mode” … and your own phone rings.

For $27.

No one has phone plans here. We just buy pay-as-you-go cards in grocery stores and mini-marts and tap in the code for another $5 or so of credit, and it lasts for quite some time — as long as you don’t do something wacky like calling the U.S.

So, that’s how every expat day laborer here can afford his own phone. Even when they make $200 a month.

When it comes to telecoms and cell phones … prices here are pretty much rock bottom. Something to talk about.