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

manveruppd · 25 Jan 2011 at 14:49

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...

Has anyone tried this or are we all going to be left wondering? :cool:

Its_Me · 25 Jan 2011 at 14:55

yes it does, emergency calls will use any network available.
Barred phones even must be allowed to call emergency, its part of the telecommunication rules.

Tunney · 25 Jan 2011 at 14:56

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.

thepeganator · 25 Jan 2011 at 15:05

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.

manveruppd · 25 Jan 2011 at 15:05

That's cool to know, thank you

Tunney · 25 Jan 2011 at 17:56

thepeganator said:
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.

Macky · 25 Jan 2011 at 21:12

My Dad just got this phone today!

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

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

thepeganator · 25 Jan 2011 at 21:19

Macky said:
My Dad just got this phone today!

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

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

Read that in Thunderbird without visiting the page so got the original, spent a minute just thinking "WTF does that mean?!"

Murray · 25 Jan 2011 at 22:26

ive done it and it does work.