Apocalypse almost

I was having some problems with my Samsung phone on Verizon recently. I found that often I would have no service at all during the early morning hours. The situation appears to be improving, though. There has been no explanation as to why the service disappeared during those times (may be lack of towers at my location?). I'm still generally satisfied with Verizon, and have used them for many years.

I just think it's funny that the lack of phone service for a short period in a place where jumping in the car would have resolved the problem is labeled "Apocalypse"

Yes, you can buy beer from vending machines in Japan. I've even bought Ramen from one outdoor vending machine.

Public phones are still available, especially around markets and convenience stores like 7-11s in Japan

Through crime may not be as prevalent as here, it does exist especially around commercial or tourist districts.

Surprisingly in high tech country like Japan public pay phones are stil in many places,mainly bc in emergency like earthquakes one can use it for free

But then people there respect others property and would never damage or break in to steal change
https://youtu.be/EKtbvHSHAns

Same with vending machines,in emergency it dispenses drinks for free,not sure about beer Lol but soft drink and water,tea etc for sure.

https://youtu.be/HEXNj2xTzhs

BobsYourUncle wrote:
free, what part of Canada are you in?

I had exactly the same problem yesterday. I am in Calgary with Telus.

I was in the middle of a call to BC and the call suddenly ended. I couldn't call back for a couple minutes, managed to get through again, finished the call and then got what you described.
Emergency Calls Only.
I rebooted the phone several times to no avail.

Then it would flip in and out of service, and I got a further message on the screen, with an alert tone every time, something about No data available or similar message. This went on and off at least a couple dozen times.

After a while it cleared up and went back to normal again.

Then a strange one, last night after dinner I noticed my battery was at 53%. Ok, normal. Phone was acting strange so I rebooted it again. When it started back up, the phone got hot and the battery plummeted to 2%. What the ??....
53 to 2% in less than 10 minutes.
By the time I made it to my charger, it hit zero and shut off.

Weird...

Mine is a Samsung S7 - Android. What's yours?

Im in Ontario service is always good,
Use Blackberry works awesome Im guesing sim card got bit lose and wasnt contacting perfectly.
Fwiw I try to keep the phone clean and dry at all times but sht hapens

For people complaining public phones cost too much to maintain is rediculous.
big Hardware stores,WM,,Canada tire,food Superstores and Gas stations all make plenty o profit to have a land line in case of emergency.

Cell phones can break easy when you drop it and then what?

Both of our phones use Verizon towers, but in the rare event we can't reach one, each phone has a VOIP app installed that lets us use our AT&T hotspot or any other accessible WiFi for phone calls. We also carry a spare inactive phone that also has the VOIP app installed as a "just in case" backup.

free radical wrote:

Says shut the phone take out Sim card put back in restart,
phone works again just fine,,

Have not seen this in ... Well 1980's was the last time.

There is a virus,, No not THAT Virus, but this virus infects not people but electronics. It loves electrical fields and grows on connectors.

Well when it does it insulates the connector and the device stops working.

What you did... is the cure. it scrapes the virus off

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Are you 'solo"?

We have 2 cells phones so odds of one failing is less of a problem
*Unless system wide outage

We also travel with two cell phones ... plus a Garmin satellite emergency SOS and texting communicator ... plus air evacuation insurance if we are able to communicate during medical emergencies.

One should always have a Plan A and a Plan B ... and ideally probably a Plan C.

We were RV traveling with friends once when they got stuck merely just off the highway in a soft shoulder. We could barely get out over our phones right here in the good old U.S. of A.. Plan for the worst, and hope for the best.

BobsYourUncle wrote:

Mine is a Samsung S7 - Android. What's yours?

My wife had an S7 a few years ago - it was notorious for having battery problems. It would randomly overheat to the point where it left a mark on her leg when she had it in her pocket once. We had it replaced by Verizon the first time it overheated, but they wouldn't do anything for us after that. She ended up replacing it with a Motorola, and has been happy with it.

What bugs me why they scrapped all public phones?

Because installing an maintaining a public phone costs money and with the proliferation of cell phones, few people use them. But if you ask at a customer service desk, I'd be surprised if they wouldn't let you use their phone or at least make a call for you.

My company doesn't even give desk phones to employees (except for a few, like sales people). Everyone else uses a cell.

If you're traveling solo, you should probably carry a backup phone with a cheap pre-paid SIM from a different provider than your main phone (T-Mobile has a $3/month plan). Even if you didn't have this SIM problem, you could have dropped your phone in a puddle or lost it.

When my wife and I travel, between the two of us, we have 2 phones, a wireless hotspot, a couple laptops, a tablet computer and an Amazon Echo, any of these devices can make a phone call with Wifi (which easy to find at coffee shops, etc). Our cell phones and hotspot are on different providers (AT&T, Verizon and Google Fi (sprint/t-mobile)).

When my elderly parents went on a 6 month cross country trip, I sent them a Garmin Satellite communicator (which I usually take on backcountry hiking trips). They're relatively inexpensive these days -- cost is around $400 + $12/month for a basic SMS plan, but they work pretty much anywhere in the world where you have a clear view of the sky. The one I have is also a handheld GPS, so is a backup for phone based GPS's (it doesn't do street routing like a car based GPS, but at least you can see where you are and where the main roads are). This was great since they could send a message even when out of cell phone range like "Fishing is great here - staying another week", and we knew they were safe and could call for help if they needed anything.

Even Satellite phones have really come down in price, last time I used one was over a decade ago and it cost thousands of dollars and several dollars a minute to talk. Now you can get one for around $500 + $50/month for basic plan, good for emergency use).