Comox Valley - Vancouver Island

[Fergusson]

We live in the Comox Valley, Vancouver Island, and since last night both our phones are only giving us the message "Emergency Calls Only" when either of us attempts to call out. Both accounts are active and paid and there is nothing that indicates any problems on our account. This is a bit of a problem as we don't have a landline and we are in a rural area.

Can anyone tell me why we would be getting this message and what the problem might be?

thanks in advance

[Fergusson]

So it turns out it was a problem we created ourselves unwittingly. I tried to implement Wi-Fi calling on our Android phones. Although it didn't indicate an error it seemed to disable mobile calling even though shown as still enabled.

As soon as I disabled Wi-Fi calling everything started to work properly again.

Something to keep in mind ... thanks for everyone's help and ideas though it was very much appreciated.

[GinYVR]

@FergussonAs I have said, in a bring your own device model, the onus is on the owner to make sure the equipment is working. If you health is depending on it, I highly recommend going to Koodo postpaid instead. You get everything in one go from Koodo and they pick up the responsiblity of make sure everything is working. You do get what you pay for when it comes to support.

[Fergusson]

We will give that a try but I personally can't afford to wait too long. If Public Mobile can't help us I am willing to pay more to get better service and support.

[GinYVR]

@FergussonI would suggest just swap one of your SIM cards into an aquaintence's phone (even at stores like London Drugs).. either way it helps to narrow down where the fault lies. You mentioned you have health ailment, I just don't want you to get into a situation where it is the equipment's fault and you were expecting / waiting Public Mobile to do something about it. Getting 2 phones failing at the same time is near impossible, since there is no tech support with Public Mobile there has to be some DIY to figure out what's wrong.

[Fergusson]

What would result in them being blacklisted?They were purchased on Amazon several months ago, have worked flawlessly for 3 months, our accounts are on auto-payment and nothing else has changed. There just doesn't seem to be anything else that I can think of. 

There have been no Android updates either.

I am at a loss at this stage

If we can't get this solved be Monday I will be calling Telus and switching. I am a Type 1 diabetic and depend on my phone.

Ty for your thoughts though

[GinYVR]

@FergussonI would highly recommend you check your phones at a store to have them once over  to make sure they have not been blacklisted. If your phones have been blacklisted.. it is not Public Mobile's responsiblity to provide service. There are no warnings to blacklistings other than the symptoms that you had described.

[Fergusson]

we purchased them both at the same time and they have both been working great with Public Mobile for 3 months. Nothing has changed at our end we just started to both get the message yesterday for no explainable reason.

we thought it might have been a Telus service disruption in our area but that is not the case so hopefully, the moderators will get back to us asap.

thanks for the feedback

[GinYVR]

@FergussonHaving both phones going down at the same time is odd. Have you tried to swap one of your SIM cards with family's, friends' or neighbours; phones? Did you purchase the phones from the same source? Are they from a store (not from craiglist or second hand)? If you ported your current numbers from another provider are you sure you didn't have a balance with them (aka financing)?

If the phones have been black listed it will give the symptoms that you have described.

[Fergusson]

We are not that far from you and this emergency message persists when we drive into town. That is why I am thinking it is an account issue.

I have sent a note to the moderators and hopefully, they will get back to me fairly soon. We don't have a landline so the Internet is our only other method of communication. I am also a Type 1 diabetic so definitely don't want to be without a phone for any length of time

thanks again or all your help ... it is appreciated

🙂

[wetcoaster]

I'm close to CFB Comox and no problem with connectivity today.

[RossN]

@Fergusson yes strange indeed message the moderators it's probably an account issue

[Fergusson]

I just checked in with Telus Outages map and there are none in this area so it must have something to do with Public Mobile, our phones or our accounts. It just seems very coincidental that we would have the problem almost simultaneously. 

https://www.telus.com/en/bc/outages

[Fergusson]

Hi Ross

thanks so much for the speedy reply. It seems to be something common as we are using 2 identical phones running the same version of Android. Both stopped working at almost the same time and we just thought it was a Telus service problem.

[will13am]

There might be a local service outage affecting cellular service. Check this map for details. https://istheservicedowncanada.com/status/telus/map

[hycm53]

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@Fergusson wrote:

We live in the Comox Valley, Vancouver Island, and since last night both our phones are only giving us the message "Emergency Calls Only" when either of us attempts to call out. Both accounts are active and paid and there is nothing that indicates any problems on our account. This is a bit of a problem as we don't have a landline and we are in a rural area.

Can anyone tell me why we would be getting this message and what the problem might be?

thanks in advance

---

Try power off your phone and take out SIM for 15 minutes or more, then put SIM in and power on your phone. If still doesn't work then try reset network setting.

[RossN]

@Fergusson if that doesn't work  send your issue to the moderators here

[RossN]

@Fergusson You can try the lost/stolen phone trick to see if it will force an update.
 
Login to your account, click on Plan and Add-Ons, then select Lost/Stolen Phone.
Click Suspend Sevice and logout. Wait for a few mins, then login to the same Lost/Stolen Phone tab and click Resume Service. Restart your phone after and see if this helps.