My oldest son did not get a cell phone until after he graduated from college. While he never complained, he told us later that it made things very difficult because everyone else could get together and make plans easily and he had to wait to hear from people on the landline in his room or via an email when he was logged on to his PC. Yes, back in our day we all had to use our landlines to make plans or we all talked about making plans together over a meal or after class, but now when everyone else is texting each other and planning things quickly and on the spur of the moment, the one person who doesn’t have the ability to do that gets left out.
Actually, your son had an option - get a job and purchase his own cell phone if it was all that important to him.
Heck. I didn’t get mine until I was 30. My Mother and sister had one before I did but only a few years. My children do not get a cell phone until 10 and it has worked pretty well. I couldn’t stand having to wait for the kids to finish up sports and other stuff. Now I can get a call when they finish practice and by the time I get there they are done with locker room, last minute talk with friends. My children are 17, 15, 13, and 8. They are good kids. Mostly because my wife is a great Mom. Plus I haven’t had to bail them out of jail yet. The only thing that sucks is that my oldest graduates high school this year and off to college in August........My wife and I often talking about wishing we had more children. We did leave it up to God and he said 4 was enough........we had a hell of a time getting number 4.