What does "Emergency Calls Only" mean?

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Fri, 26 Nov 2004
14:37:32 GMT, Jud Hardcastle <[email protected]>
wrote:

>In article <[email protected]>,
>[email protected] says...

>> Maybe, maybe not. But calling 611 at that time would tell you.
>> Those two numbers, 611 (for most carriers - Sprint is different, I
>> think they use *2) and 911, will go through even if your phone is on a
>> network you can't use. But you won't get Cingular customer service,
>> you'll get the customer service office of the carrier your phone is
>> "locked onto".
>
>YMMV on 611. About a month ago I got on a GSM system west of here that
>apparently Cingluar doesn't have a roaming agreement with (the TDMA
>carrier C. would normally roam on in the past doesn't have GSM yet).
>Anyway 611 and *611 would NOT go through - same error message as any
>other number. I didn't try 911.

611 should have gone through to the current carrier, so there was probably
some sort of network problem, perhaps even blacklist blocking. If 911 doesn't
go through, then something is seriously wrong, since that's mandated by the
FCC.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

---

› See More: What does "Emergency Calls Only" mean?

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Fri, 26 Nov 2004 05:17:17
-0800, Joseph <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 17:07:53 GMT, Isaac Wingfield <[email protected]>
>wrote:

>>So, what does "Emergency Calls Only" mean, and is there anything I can
>>do to stop it or work around it?
>
>Emergency Calls Only means just what it says. There's nothing you can
>do about it other than change your location.

You may be able to overcome the problem by taking out the battery while the
phone is turned on, and then replacing it and turning the phone back on. This
forces a hard reset in the phone, which may then lock onto a different
network.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Fri, 26 Nov
2004 13:22:42 GMT, Jack Zwick <[email protected]> wrote:

>In article <[email protected]>,
> Joseph <[email protected]> wrote:

>> Emergency Calls Only means just what it says. There's nothing you can
>> do about it other than change your location.
>
>au contraire. Most cell phones have a SETUP that allows configuring
>"Network" or "Roaming", and if its set to only do native Cingular, then
>perhaps this problem wouldn't occur.

au contraire. Cingular disables network selection in its SIMs.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

"M. D. Borca" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > The message means your phone has not been authorized to make (or
> > receive) calls and therefore only calls to 911 will be allowed.
> >
> > I think that message would always be due to what they said--your phone
> > had locked onto another carrier because it couldn't connect to Cingular
> > in that location at that time. Cingular doesn't allow roaming on
> > another carrier when you are "officially" within your home area
> > regardless of the reason for the failure--a "dead" spot that isn't
> > covered at all or a weak spot caused by a building or something.
> > Roaming in that case would cost Cingular money they couldn't pass on to
> > the customers on no-roam-charge plans so their contracts don't provide
> > for it. Most phones (but maybe not all) would have been reading
> > "Cingular Extend" instead of just "Cingular". Some users are saying
> > that "roaming" on ATTWS in that situation is now possible with the
> > merge--but roaming on TMobile would not be allowed.
>
> I've gotten this message on my old MPx200 when the sim card did not
> make contact with the phone or when there was no sim card in the
> phone.
Take your SIM card out and brush the contact side on some clean cloth and
reinsert it. You could have bad contacts on the card or possibly in the
phone. The contacts in the phone may need cleaning, or if they are a "spring
loaded" type of contact, the spring action may be weak and need to be
replaced or repaired.
B.

"Al Klein" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 17:07:53 GMT, Isaac Wingfield <[email protected]>
> said in alt.cellular.cingular:
>
> >One thing they suggested was that my phone had "locked onto another
> >provider's network", but in that case, wouldn't the phone have some
> >indication of that fact?
>
> Maybe, maybe not. But calling 611 at that time would tell you.
> Those two numbers, 611 (for most carriers - Sprint is different, I
> think they use *2) and 911, will go through even if your phone is on a
> network you can't use. But you won't get Cingular customer service,
> you'll get the customer service office of the carrier your phone is
> "locked onto".
>
> >My suspicion is that it has to do with network congestion, but they
> >don't want to admit it, because then they'd have to add some cells or
> >something.
>
> Could be, but no carrier will ever have enough capacity to handle all
> calls all the time. Even the land line system chokes a bit during
> times of peak usage (like around 10-11AM on Mother's Day morning).

No its not a network issue. Whenever its a busy network, your call will
simply not go through.

>
> >So, what does "Emergency Calls Only" mean
>
> 911 and 611 calls only.
>
> >and is there anything I can do to stop it or work around it?
>
> Other than trying again, or moving a few feet, nothing I can think of.

As I posted before, your SIM may not be, for what ever reason, making good
contact in your phone. If its not, it will not do anything but 611 and 911.
B.