Yea, also in some larger communities, they have issues with this.

What happens is a cell site can only hold about 750-1000 calls, given if the tower has the average 35 channels. Some towers have less. Those smaller channeled towers would be in smaller communities. The 750-1000 calls is only valid for CDMA/PCS. GSM (not Sprint) can only hold about 500-700 calls given if it has 45 or more channels.

Usually, the cause for a backup like this is when a tower in a nearby city is down or because of a large in-town event. This makes it to where more and more people will use that tower. This usually results in more dropped calls and even sometimes the loss of service. This would (or could) probably be an error from your side, not his...even when your calling him...in rare occasions, it may be his area.

This is what it sounds like to me...

He may be out of range, roaming, on the phone...
or the phone is turned off

I talked to my bf, he said to call him back in 5 minutes and when I did I got this message saying the number is not reachable even when I know it is.

I am trying to call a number that I believe is on the sprint network and I keep getting a recording that says "the number you are trying to call is not reachable pps (or pts) 6180."

I know the phone was working 15 mins before then, so I'm not sure what the deal is.