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Power went off about 10 p.m. here in HPP last night (( http://tinyurl.com/2d2dqzg). I have phone service via cable company so, of course, that went out also. I listened to my crank-up radio but never got any info re the outage. After about two hours I started to wonder what was going on and if there might be something I needed to know so I got out the cell phone, went out in the driveway, stood on one leg and held my mouth just right, which is the only way to get the barest minimal service here at the house. At least it wasn’t raining. However, when I dialed HELCO, I got a recording from AT&T saying I was not allowed to make any calls but 911, then disconnecting me. This is not the first time this has happened with the AT&T cell service. I’ve had similar experience once before while in Hilo with a neighbor, trying to call his elderly mother at home here in HPP and being told no calls but 911 were allowed. I’m wondering if this refusal of service during these perceived emergencies is AT&T’s doing or county or state, or perhaps even federal. If it’s an AT&T thing, that would be reason for me to look at switching services. An emergency, however large or small, is when you need to be able to check in with aging parents, young children, or just plain family of any sort. Anyone familiar with this policy? I don’t like it, I think it’s wrong, but I’m open to explanation. Anybody got one?
use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without
I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.
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quote:
Originally posted by Lin W
I’m wondering if this refusal of service during these perceived emergencies is AT&T’s doing or county or state, or perhaps even federal.
Federal. During incidents (power outages, natural disasters, disturbances, etc.) cell carriers are required to maintain communications to 9-1-1 services. Any voice call can be dropped or denied when traffic is inundating the system. They have to maintain a certain percentage of availability for 9-1-1- calls in those situations. In non-emergency incidents, (every day), they still must drop voice calls to allow a 9-1-1 call to get through.
Interesting. Maybe it's a Puna thing. When I've been in your situation with no cable and no digital phone, I've relied on my cell phone, which is AT&T, no issues. Heck I've sat there and used my cell phone as a replacement for my computer, using the 3G. No issues. I live north of Hilo though -- perhaps fewer people flooding the lines.
I dropped the digital phone service, because it leaves me isolated when cable and power goes out, so I can't get by without a cell. At least with Hawaiian Telcom, if I had a non cordless phone I could use it when the power went out.
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I'm glad to know that since calling AT&T made it painfully obvious that the customer service people didn't know - gave me some convoluted story about only being able to make emergency calls if your tower went down and your phone couldn't reach the next closest tower - wha???
Anyway, I can see the rationale behind the ruling but after midnight on a then Tuesday morning in HPP, I doubt that there were hundreds of cell users clamoring for space on the system, unless, of course, the HELCO workers were all on their phones. Oh well, I suppose that as long as I can reach 911 if I have to, that's all I really need. Guess I'll go find some other windmill to tilt at. [^]
Mahalo!
use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without
I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.
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I was wondering if you turned your phone off and on after you got that message, that usually solves the issue. At least with my wife's att phone it has.
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I hear you can use TXT messaging "easier" than voice calls during emergencies. Of course that doesn't do you any good with HELCO, but just FYI...
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I did turn it on and off several times, didn't change a thing.[  ]
quote:
Originally posted by Scott_S
I was wondering if you turned your phone off and on after you got that message, that usually solves the issue. At least with my wife's att phone it has.
use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without
I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.
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Don't have texting, can make calls and take calls, nothing else, but good to know.[  ]
quote:
Originally posted by Donivan
I hear you can use TXT messaging "easier" than voice calls during emergencies. Of course that doesn't do you any good with HELCO, but just FYI...
use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without
I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.
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The only time a message like that would happen would be when your phone is not activated. Maybe you are getting such crappy service IE no bars that it can't properly register your sim card on the network. Sine if your phone is not registered the ONLY call you can make is 911. Any phone can call out to 911 registered or not.
Complain and have other complain to ATT to get a better signal or switch to a cell service that can provide a better one!
Good Luck.
Yeah, my son was on the phone to AT&T last week, telling them his particular phone gets too many dropped calls, so many that everyone who knows him remarks on it. They then take a closer look, and see what the problem is, whether they can do a reset with crucial updates, stuff like that.
We're used to thinking that all service with one company is the same, but with cellular that's not true. And like I said, I have no trouble at all calling and browsing the internet when cable and power are out.
It could even be that your phone is not good, or not new enough?
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