Aside fro Ryan's perfect explanation of why this concern is ludacris, The show takes place in a space ship. Where would the cell phone towers be? Every character could have a cell phone laying around usless.   See 4 other replies

Why would there be cell phones all over the place in their 2009, let alone their 1999? Did you forget what was happening before the ship crashed?WORLD WAR THREE!Nobody in business to build-up the cell networks to anything remotely close to what is in our reality. What cities didn't get nuked you'd have conventional fighting that makes Fallujah and Baghdad a walk in the park.
Only with the ship's crashing did everyone snap out of their collective insanity and got the world together to unite against bigger problems. Like advanced aliens with huge warships and possibly hostile intentions.
And with "bigger things" to worry about, truly useless crap like Twitter and iPhone apps or the next cool touchscreen device don't get invented at all. Society has to get re-built. Dead people have to be buried. Unexploded Ordnance has to get cleared-out. And a big honking alien gun destroyer with Reflex Fusion Furnaces needs its secrets figured-out before its previous owners come a calling.   See 4 other replies

I remember seeing a "businessman" with a phone in a briefcase in the early eighties. Believe me, the phone took up the whole briefcase!! He thought he was so cool... and I guess he was, but I want to know who he was calling!! and then again, if he was so important, where were his bodyguards? ;p   See 4 other replies

I think the intent was a laziness of creativity mixed with making the characters relatable to the audience at the time, so that the plot wouldn't be as way over their heads like shows try to be now a days. also the fashion.   See 4 other replies