something about both the Kaufmans and some other cruisers having issues not because the phone was just turned off, but because there was a chip upgrade or SIM card protocol change that effectively turned it off. That upgrade had only a limited 30 day advance notice which obviously might not be adequate for someone mid-ocean or with limited internet/mail access. Wherever I heard this, the complaint had more to do with the limited notification time more than the fact that it was 'just turned off'.

There's always 'more to the story' in cases like this and the 'reporting' of a story too often leaves out a few critical details that might enable genuine understanding of the issues at hand.