"No SIM card in phone - emergency calls only!" WTF?

Associate
Joined
24 Feb 2004
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Leeds/Cyprus
Now this is bizarre... switched the phone on without the SIM card in it and got the above message. :confused:
Can you really make emergency calls without a SIM card inside? How does it connect to the mobile network without a SIM? I'm VERY curious to find out if this is really possible, but for obvious reasons I don't want to call 999 just to see if it'll ring... :p ;)
Has anyone tried this or are we all going to be left wondering? :cool:
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Oct 2004
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London
My prediction is that it won't connect if you try to actually make an emergency code.

The GSM telephony specifications have had what you've seen in as a mandatory feature for a long time. The phone is supposed to connect to the strongest network and attempt to make an emergency call over it. However, most networks won't allow unknown phones on their network even to make emergency calls, so the call will fail.
 
Associate
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The call will not fail, it's the law that phones have to be allowed to make emergency calls regardless of having a sim card in or the sim card having credit.

Hence when you're out of range of your network your phone may say "emergency calls only" as it will just use another network to make the call.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Oct 2004
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14,549
Location
London
The call will not fail, it's the law that phones have to be allowed to make emergency calls regardless of having a sim card in or the sim card having credit.

That's the problem. By law the phones have to be able to make calls without a SIM card in the phone. However there's no law stating that networks have to accept emergency calls from unknown devices. Thus, the phone will try to do the right thing but the call will be blocked by the network.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
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West Midlands
My Dad just got this phone today!

His initial impression being, 'Why must they use pictures instead of words for the menu'. :D

And I've just posted in the wrong thread. /dies
 
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