Cell Phone Question?

[Dennis1209]

Will dialing 9-1-1 on a cell phone work when you DO NOT have cell phone provider service? Naturally I'm not going to dial it to see if it does or does not.

Reason I ask: There may come a day when I may need it. I was paying almost $200.00 a month for mine, the wifes and daughters cell phones with all the bells and whistles and I very seldom used mine. The two year contract ended so I decided I didn't want to continue with that additional bill, so I canceled.

BTW. It was Verizon if that makes any difference as far as 9-1-1. Thanks

[TMF]

Yes. I learned this the hard way when a friend gave my son her deactivated Blackberry to play with. It no longer had a number assigned to it. We didn't know until the popo showed up....... oops!

[Guest Victor9er]

Yes. It's required by law that all cellphones are able to dial 911 even if there is no service activated for that phone. As long as the battery has juice, you can dial 911.

[JGunner]

I'll add to this. My sister recently gave me her old iPhone 3g to replace my broken phone. When I powered it up before putting in a sim card (i.e. it had no service) it gave a message on the screen that would allow me to make an emergency call.

[Guest bkelm18]

Yep, Federal law requires that it be able to.

[Guest bkelm18]

Yes. It's required by law that all cellphones are able to dial 911 even if there is no service activated for that phone. As long as the battery has juice, you can dial 911.

Well, juice AND a tower signal.

[Sam1]

Well, juice AND a tower signal.

That pretty much means that you can not call 911 with AT&T here in TN then

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Yep..AT&T is really bad for coverage....not sure how they can even compete with other cell phone providers..G

[Pain103]

Yes a disconnected cell phone will call 911. When it hits the 911 call oprator it shows a 911 area code to represent that it is a disconnected cell.

[Sam1]

Yep..AT&T is really bad for coverage....not sure how they can even compete with other cell phone providers..G

We never figured out how they cover 97% of the country but we were in the 3% not covered, 97% of the time... No matter where we were

[analog_kidd]

Another interesting fact about 911 on a cell phone is that many of them will make a alerting beep for several minutes after dialing. This is so EMS can locate you if you are unable to speak upon their arrival.

It's very bad tactically speaking if you are hiding in the closet when an intruder is in your house and you want to quietly call the police. You can turn it off, but you should know about it and turn it off before you need to use it.

Edited June 7, 2012 by analog_kidd

[Tncobra]

You can donate your old cell phones to places like Safe Space or other battered women shelters. The phones are given to domestic violence victims to be used for dialing 911.

[Guest Fergie0660]

Ive seen some phones pull a signal when 911 was called. Never was able to make a regular call but got thru to 911.

Edited June 7, 2012 by Fergie0660

[Guest Fergie0660]

Stupid smartphone doubletap

Edited June 7, 2012 by Fergie0660

[Sam1]

You can donate your old cell phones to places like Safe Space or other battered women shelters. The phones are given to domestic violence victims to be used for dialing 911.

can also send it to cell phones for soldiers (http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com), program was started by two kids and has turned into a mutli-million dollar organization to get soldiers some free talk time via phone cards when overseas.

We should give the victims of domestic abuse a free class on how to pack a suitcase open a door and walk out.

Edited June 7, 2012 by Sam1

[kb4ns]

Yep, the disconnected cell phones can still call 911. That is why Memphis's 911 system receives dozens of calls per hour from folks who haven't paid their Cricket bill. They're always calling with serious emergencies such as "Can you connect me to Papa John's?" and "What time do the game start?"

[glowdotGlock]

I have some old cell phones that still have good battery life and when I go on overnight hikes I take an old one along with me in case something happens to my primary phone. Just a little more assurance if anything should happen.

Sent from my Droid RAZR Maxx using Tapatalk 2

[TN Outlaw]

i did not know this good to know

[Caster]

AT&T service here. Zero problems.