Intermittent Emergeny calls only - "Not Registered on Network"

[krs99]

I'm again getting very intermittently "Emergeny calls only" and when I try to dial it comes up as "Not Registered on Network".

This actually changes fron showing "Public Mobile" (ie connected) to "Emergency Calls only" from one minute to the next without me doing anything other than refreshing the screen to see what the status of the phone is.

I had the problem once before, quite a while back, and at that time PM did something on their end to resolve the issue.

One thing I noticed (and I think that was an issue last time as well until something on PMs end was fixed)is that the signal strength changes quitea bit even though the phone is not moved - it's just sitting on my desk in front of me.

When the signal strength shows two orthree bars I get "Emergency only" when it increasesto four or five basr, "Public Mobile" is displayed.

That signal strength change happens with the phone sitting on my desk, not moving it at all so I assume it's the tower.

Does anyone have a clue what is going on?

[krs99]

I tried the phone a few times this morning - everything is still good.

Problem is definitely resolved.

I will ask the mod what was done and also ask for a ticket number if there is one.

Happy to share all that.

One thing I noticed on the phone is that the signal strength is now a solid 4/5 all the time.

Before it would vary from 1/5 or 2/5 to 4/5 and bak again.

Everytime it was 1 or 2/5 the "Emergency only" message would come up.

[darlicious]

@krs99 

If the moderator opened a ticket with the tech team to get it resolved get the ticket reference # then if it happens again you can quote the reference # to get it quickly resolved again. 

[RosieR]

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@krs99 wrote:

@sheytoon

Thanks for offering to help.

But with problem resolved by PM, I assume there is no need to check anything further.

It would however be nice to have some idea what PM support did to resolve this issue in case it comes up again.

---

Hi @krs99 always good to know that a fellow customer's issue is now resolved (well, for now anyway 😀 ) Yay!

If you want to know what the moderator did to solve your issue, contact the same moderator and ask.  We are all fellow customers here in the forums so we would appreciate it if you shared the knowledge to help other customers with the same issue.

Moderators are available:

• Monday to Sunday: 6 AM to 10 PM EST

Now go have a good night and a great weekend

RosieR

(fellow customer)

[krs99]

@sheytoon

Thanks for offering to help.

But with problem resolved by PM, I assume there is no need to check anything further.

It would however be nice to have some idea what PM support did to resolve this issue in case it comes up again.

[BlueB]

I'm glad if the PM staff/moderator team helped fix the issue for you!  If you know what was done, please let us know because this could help us help other users in the future.  🙂

[krs99]

Re;

But of course that doesn't explain how it was fixed if tower location is the issue

-------

The last reply by PM support when I had the issue in August 2020 was:

Unfortunately your location is right between sectors (towers) and therefore you're experiencing poor indoor coverage and no WiFi calling available. An upgrade is scheduled in your area but not before late fall.

...which suggests the tower loation was the issue, but that is not true.

What I remember at the time wasthat the problem suddenly orrecte itself some time, probably a few days, after that last reply.

When I looked at the towers near my house yesterday, they were the same as in August 2020 - nothing hanged there.

However....

I contacted the mods this afternoon with the details of the issue, the fact I had it before and also a link to this discussion.

Got an answer within a few hours which essentially just says - should be OK now, if there are any issues let us know.

I hanged the network settings on the phone bak to the original, ie including LTE, and since then I have checked to phone about a half dozen times - it always omes up with "Public Mobile" right away - no more "Emergency Calls only"

Since issue was intermittent I will check a bit more, but I'm pretty confident that whatever PM support did resolved this issue.

[darlicious]

@krs99 

Our resident expert in these matters is @sheytoon if anyone can get to the bottom of your issue he likely can......

@sheytoon 

Thanks for answering the call!

[sheytoon]

@krs99 

With your S4, can you post a screenshot of *#0011# screen with both SIM cards? Need to confirm Cityfone (Rogers) band.

Also dial *#2263# and post the LTE band capabilities of the phone.

Keep in mind Rogers coverage is different than Bell/Telus.

[darlicious]

@krs99 

Well....I did see I missed the previous post to your last one but the concept is the same. If your phone is set to automatically choose between 4G LTE/3G/2G ( there is no 2G network to choose from with telus) it will always try to choose 4G LTE initially giving you the emergency message but will default to 3G until it picks a weak 4G LTE signal again and it starts over again. But of course that doesn't explain how it was fixed if tower location is the issue unless there has been a slight change in the azimuth of the towers.

Maybe this is a question @sheytoon can answer.....

[krs99]

Re;

When you make or take a call your phone has to switch from the 4G LTE network to the 3G network. Remaining on the 3G network prevents your phone from having to do this....with your older phone its probably having some issues doing this.

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Hmmmmm. thanks, but...

For one, this was happening while the phone was sitting on my desk, there were no incoming or outgoing calls. In fact, I use that phone very seldom, on average a dozen calls a month if that, that's why I have the heapet PM plan, I don't get anywhere close to the 100 minutes of the plan, last all was made on 14 April.

Also - last time that happened was in August 2020. There was never a resolution at that time, but shortly after the last message from PM support about location oftowers (and that supposely being the problem) everything started to work again and has been until a few days before my first post in this thread. That was with the LTE network setting active.

[darlicious]

@krs99 

When you make or take a call your phone has to switch from the 4G LTE network to the 3G network. Remaining on the 3G network prevents your phone from having to do this....with your older phone its probably having some issues doing this......telus and other providers don't use 3G for calling the remain on the 4G LTE network for their calling with voLTE calling.

[krs99]

It's 8:20pm Eastern.

I checked the phone many times - always get Public Mobile right away, no more Emergency Calls only.

Great!!!

Thanks everyone for their comments and help, but....

does anyone know why not including LTE soves the problem?
What is really going on?

I checked the towers near my home - the closest one is Bell, the next closest one in the opposite direction is Rogers and Freedom Mobile. No Telus ones here it seems.

[krs99]

Why does it not make sense?

The way the phone was set up it tries to connect to the LTE network but cannot get registered with PM so allows Emergency use only and eventually drops back to the 3G network.

With the change I just made, the phone will not look for a 4G network, at least that's what I think happens.

So far at least it seems to have solved the problem.

I'll report back later.

[Korth]

lol I don't think it actually makes sense, and I don't have an S4 to experiment. But the internet suggests that using the setting (or toggling the setting) can work.

[krs99]

Thanks,

I will try LTE/WCDMA/GSM –> WCDMA/GSM

to see if that helps.

Makes a lot of sense restricting connection to 2G and 3G networks only the way the signal strength kept varying.

PS: I just found the correspondence with PM last time this happened.

That was in August 2020

After a lot of testing, the conclusion by PM was:

Thank you for your patience. I have checked the ticket and the Tech Team answered. Unfortunately your location is right between sectors (towers) and therefore you're experiencing poor indoor coverage and no WiFi calling available. An upgrade is scheduled in your area but not before late fall.

[Korth]

@krs99 

On the Galaxy S4, try “Network mode” in settings
LTE/WCDMA/GSM –> WCDMA/GSM or LTE/WCDMA/GSM –> WCDMA

restart

[krs99]

I finally got around switching SIM cards but it gets me no further to a solution.

I have a Moto G Fast with a CityFone SIM card that connects to the Rogers network.

I put that CityFone SIM card into the Galaxy S4 Mini and put the Public Mobile SIM from the Mini into the Moto G Fast.

Ran that way for a bit over 30 minutes.

Neither phone or network had any problems - the Falaxy S4 stayed connected to CityFone and the Moto G Fast stayed connected to Public Mobile.

Then switched the SIM cards back to the original phones.

Turned on the Galaxy S4 with the mobile SIM and the problem is back.

Since the connection is either "Emergency Calls only" or "Public Mobile", ie I'm always connected to the network, the issue has to relate to the registration at Public Mobile.

Time to contact the mods.

[krs99]

Re:

If you only "had this issue once years ago" then it's not much of an issue.

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Just to be clear, by "once" I mean the same thing happened, service kept switching from "Emergency Calls only" to being registered on Public Mobile every few minutes.

That went on for days. After I contacted the mods about that, it still took several days to get it resolved.

Mods were very responsive and I assume tried several things before it was finally resolved.

I was hoping to find the previous correspondence in my old emails before I contact the mods since it would give them a heads up what resolved the issue last time.

Switching SIM cards is on my list to do next.

[sheytoon]

@krs99 I'm suspecting a phone issue. Try your SIM in another phone to confirm. And Telus/PM can't use Rogers cell sites outside of rural Manitoba.

[Korth]

@krs99 

If you only "had this issue once years ago" then it's not much of an issue.

Maybe it's a transient thing, basically a sort of temporary service outage which will sort itself out. Network machinery does fall offline (or get taken offline) now and then, and the techs usually get around to fixing known problems fairly quickly.

How long has your local cell service been unreliable? Weeks? Days? Hours?

[HALIMACS]

@krs99 

Did you say you've tried YOUR SIM card in another person's phone for a period of time to see if you get similar results?

Also, try their SIM in your phone at the same time.

This may exclude it being a network vs device issue.

[krs99]

Couple more points.

One of the people in the house wasa Telus tech support person and she also has a Telus phone.

She never has any issues here and when I asked herabout not having any Telus towers close byshe tells me that all providers have an agreement to useeach others towers if need be.

Besides, I have lived here 5 1/2 years, had that ell phone and service with PM for a lot of those years and only had this issue once years ago, so I don't think it's a lack of coverage.

What is interesting is that the signal level changes quite noticable pretty quickly with the phone just sitting on the desk - I'm wondering if it keeps switching towers.

[hTideGnow]

But this area has even less Rogers towers compare with Bell.  (except that 3 of those Bell towers are 2100mHz only)

@krs99 , not sure what kind of phone you got.  But you want to want get a true Telus phone for better coverage instead of those non-North American phone that has only some of the required bands but not all.

(btw, Simjack likely not the issue as you still have service intermittently.   It would be completely no service at all if that was case.  However if you want peace of mind, you can still open a ticket with mod)

[Korth]

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=45.028354&lng=-74.733230&zoom=14&type=Road...

No Telus towers and not very many Bell towers covering that area. (And you can click on each one to compare with your phone radio bands, if you like.)

If this is a permanent lack of adequate coverage then it's not something Public Mobile can fix directly, it's not being directly provided by Telus network.

[krs99]

Thanks for all the replies.
I will comment on all of them:
Location is my home in Cornwal, Ontario
There are three other people here with cellphones (not with PM, none of them have any issues)
I also have the issue when I go to the grocery store or elsewhere out of the house.

Account is in good standing - I checked that yesterday just to be sure. It’s actually set up for auto-payment.
I also wanted to double-check that my account wasn’t hijacked, but I couldn’t find n entry of my SIM card number in my account. But since my service keeps coming back and then disappears again, that can’t be the issue.

I have removed and reinserted the SIM carda few times.
Makes no difference - the service switches with the phone just sitting on the desk.

The phone I’m using…and have been using for years with PM is a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini.
Between last time this happened (a few years ago) and now - things were fine.
With a signal strength of 2 bars or even 1 bar, it would connect with no problems.

Last time I had the issue I tried a paper shim (which was also suggested)
That made no difference.
If there is a poor contact with the SIM or if it’s not inserted correctly, I get a message “No SIM”
That is not the case here.

I’m going to try another cell phone today and report back.

I will also try to findany info I have from the previous time where I hadthe issue and then contact the mods.

[Korth]

It's probably local signal/network issues.

But it could be poor electrical connection on the SIM card contacts. Worth re-seating the SIM card, worth trying it in another SIM slot (if your phone has dual SIM slots), maybe worth cleaning the contact pads. Not the best chance that this is the actual problem (and that these steps would fix that problem) but it would only take a minute to make the attempt.

[HALIMACS]

@krs99 

Sounds to me that your SIM card is making irregular contract with contracts in your phone. 

If cleaning doesn't work, either try reseating it in its adapter (if applicable) or GENTLY using a small paper shim on non-contact side of where the SIM contacts the device.

[hTideGnow]

Which province you are at?

Does this issue  happen on a specific area more often then others.  What model of your phone is that?

Also, check the wireless tower map in your area where you see the signal issue.  Maybe post a screenshot, ppl with more mobile knowledge might be able to explain with a reference of the towers around you

Canadian Cellular Towers Map (ertyu.org)

[esjliv]

@krs99 ,

• Does a reboot reset things for you?
• Also try going into airplane mode for a few minutes then back to regular mode.
• removing you SIM and gently cleaning it or the inside of where the slot is by a gentle blow may help as well.
• Check for outages in your area: https://www.telus.com/en/on/outages or https://downdetector.ca/status/telus/map/ 

IF this happened before and the Moderators reset or corrected this for you on the account and/or provisioning of things, then you could always check with them again if the above trouble shooting does not resolve anything.

Contact Moderators:

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/get-help/articles/contact-a-moderator

[BlueB]

Does your location generally have poor signal when you call/use data/etc?  If it can't communicate effectively with Public Mobile, phones generally drop to "Emergency Calls Only."

Similarly, is your account up to date and in good standing?  If there are issues with your account, your phone may have trouble registering and give problems too (but usually isn't Emergency calls only).