[pct-l] SPOT vs Cell Phone

[Jim Bravo]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 10:04 AM, John Casterline <tnx4asking at gmail.com>wrote:


> Many places on the PCT, the phone will say something like "For Emergency
> Purposes Only".  I am not sure what this means and I certainly didnt test
> it.


John:

My A&T phone did the same thing one time when, unbeknownst to me, the SIMM
card under the battery was loose and not making a connection...so the phone
itself was okay, and it had a signal, but AT&T didn't recognize my phone as
having service with them. The phone read "For emergency use only". Weirdly,
I was on a trip and forced to use land lines for 2-3 days until I figured it
out. I kept thinking "They've GOT to have cell service here, it's a
big town!!" Now that I have Verizon service I shouldn't have that issue as
they don't use Simm cards.

Could be different with your service provider. You could ask them about
it, maybe their phones are designed to say that when there is no roaming
agreement with the tower whose range you are within...

Jim