What good are they after disconnected?

There are probably no good after they have been disconnected. I have seen people use them as children's toys after they are of no use. I personally have donated my old phones so the parts or the whole phone can be recycled and the money would go to a charity. I also heard that if you donate it to the police department, they will reactivate them and give them to seniors in the community.

Hello crazy_ol_lady, yes there is still a good use for cell phones after they have been disconnected from the carrier. Here in our country you can still use it by availing of a prepaid sim from the same carrier or its sister company. Another option is have the cell phone fix so it will be open and available for use with all carriers in the country. Also if the line is not totally barred/disconnected with its carrier, meaning you can still received incoming call but cannot make an outgoing call, you can still use it to call their customer service for help.

I think it just a case iof having to put the sim card in, my friend has about three mobile phones and when her main one is not working she just transfers the sim card over, oh technology.

Besides calling 911, your phone is useless. Well, actually you can still use the arlarm clock function, but you just can't make calls. You can try to sell your own phone on craiglist. People need a replacement phone all the time, especially the one that has the same carrier like yours. If you want to keep it for your own replacement then hold on to it. New phones are not as good as old ones in lasting...