We've had ATT contract cell phone for many years & a little over a year ago I got an ATT GoPhone just for a backup. There have been a couple of times in the past year, on both phones, that we get the above message when trying to call out. We never got this message on previous cells. The first time it happened on the reg. cell I was trying to call a dr. friend to her cell that I had not used before but she had called us from same #. I thought maybe somehow since she was dr. that was the reason and never thought anymore about it. Then it happened on the GoPhone. I thought I'd forgotten to put more $$ on it, but that was not the case as I was able to use it later. Then today DH tried to call me on main cell and he got same message. He was outside and said he had 4 bars for signal.Can anyone explain why? Is it the phones -- both are Samsungs (which my previous contract cell was also & we never had this happen), or ATT service? TIA!

My guess is that while you were getting a strong signal, it was connected to a server that you're not subscribed to. There's a law that requires that 911 be available to every/any charged cell phone, regardless of subscriber status. Later, you picked up your own subscribed service and all was well.

It means you don't have sufficient signal strength from an approved network to place a normal call/text message. Make sure your phone is set up for roaming and it may help.

My guess is that you were at locations where there was no AT&T service and your phones were connecting to another company's towers which were permitting you only to make emergency calls.

Stop by the nearest ATT store and ask them - or call them.Bill

This has happened to us in the off the main roads of ARK and MS where alot of MOM and POP telephone companies still exist... This may have happened in the back roads of ALA as well...Not too long back we would get asked for a credit card number when making any call in Lewisville ARK even tho we supposedly had US wide coverage....Changing to VERIZON solved all of these problems back then...Roy Ken

"Emergency Calls Only" message | Good Sam Community

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Oct 13, 2013
Yup, sometimes when you turn it off and then turn it back on it will log into your "Home" provider's network and work fine.
Roy_Lynne
Explorer
Oct 13, 2013
That happened to me once and I took the battery out and put it back in and it worked fine. Can't hurt to try
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Oct 13, 2013
There are two things that can cause that message.

The first and most common is this: You are with AT&T.. There are other GSM carriers out there (T-Mobile for example) and AT&T has agreements with many but not all of them (T-Mobile they have an agreement) but if you connect to a network that AT&T does not have a "Roam" agreement with.. You are restricted to 9-1-1 and that's all (Federal law says the carrier HAS to process a 9-1-1 call, even if you have no minutes on a pre-paid or are subscribed to a non-partner carrier).

The other would be a communications emergency or system overload sufficient to require that message. And though I have seen system overloads.. I've never seen that message because of one.

I would not worry about that message..

NOW: What can you do about it?

In some cases the phone will lock on the strongest GSM carrier even though AT&T has a tower a mear 3db further away.. IN cases like this there is often a menu selection you can access (You will need to call 6-1-1 during a time when you have full service to find out how to get there) that will give YOU control over which network you log into.. You can then choose to lock it on AT&T at least for the time being.

But I can't tell you how to do it. You can get help from 6-1-1
Mountain_Mama
Explorer
Oct 13, 2013
1ed wrote:
Had the same problem with my GoPhone and called AT&T and they had cut off my service even though I had over $350 dollars in account balance..They apologized and gave me a free years service since I had been a customer for over 10 years. If you are in their service area and had this problem then they cut you off......Need to contact AT&T.

It was only that way for about an hour, but it has happened on our contract phone yesterday too. I'll give them a call if it keeps doing it.
1ed
Explorer
Oct 13, 2013
Had the same problem with my GoPhone and called AT&T and they had cut off my service even though I had over $350 dollars in account balance..They apologized and gave me a free years service since I had been a customer for over 10 years. If you are in their service area and had this problem then they cut you off......Need to contact AT&T.
mda
Explorer
Oct 13, 2013
Sometimes the pre-paid phones do not allow roaming as a contract phone does. The major cell phone operators ATT, Verizon, Sprint, have reciprocal agreements with local and regional operators. This increases their coverage area.
1775
Explorer
Oct 12, 2013
All cell phones will connect to make a 911 call if the phone has no service provider. If this happens and you know your account is paid and working, it means you are out of your provider's service area and have no roaming privilege on the local provider. If that is not the case then AT&T screwed up your account and took you off service for some reason, and when it started working later, the problem was corrected.
Tiger4x4RV
Nomad
Oct 12, 2013
It happens to me often with my Tracfone, which uses the signals of other carriers. If I wait a while, I often get an all-clear for regular calls.

I think that the emergency-only message comes up when all of Tracfone's possible lines are busy, but that is just a guess.
RoyB
Explorer II
Oct 12, 2013
This has happened to us in the off the main roads of ARK and MS where alot of MOM and POP telephone companies still exist... This may have happened in the back roads of ALA as well...

Not too long back we would get asked for a credit card number when making any call in Lewisville ARK even tho we supposedly had US wide coverage....

Changing to VERIZON solved all of these problems back then...

Roy Ken
Trackrig
Explorer II
Oct 12, 2013
Stop by the nearest ATT store and ask them - or call them.

Bill