a Girl said:
He is not talking though about regular calls. He clearly mentioned direct connect services. Sprint is mostly reducing excess capacity at this time on the iden network which can cause some in building signal changes. I do agree with you though that most customers have been aware of the iden network shutdown in the future and should prepare accordingly. The frequency used by the iden network is going to be freed up for Sprint's Network Vision, this lower frequency will eventually be used to supply better signal strength in buildings and signal further from cell sites.

This is why his post makes no sense. If they own phones capable of making regularcalls on a different network, which is unaffected by the shutdown, what's the problem? Just use the phone and forget about the DC part. Why would she even need DC anyway? If it were me, I 'd set up my number on a speed dial location (e.g. 555-555-555 would be "5") on her phone. Using speed dial would be far less complicated for a supposed 81 year old invalid who probably hasn't the grip to engage in a PTT conversion.