I have Signal Bars but then why does it still say Emergency Calls Only?

Reece_Brez

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Displaying Signal Bars but still saying "Emergency Calls Only"

Hi,
I moved to the three network a few months back while I was in college, I was in college in a different area to home so was able to avail of 4G connections etc, and it was great around there. But, when I got home to my home in rural ireland, i noticed than when I'm in my house, I have signal bars on my phone (Samsung Galaxy Note 3), but at the bottom of my lock screen it says "Emergency Calls Only". I could get proper signal in one room in the house but that was it, no calls, no texts or no internet would work, it was useless without wifi. As soon as I leave my home the signal comes back and is relitively good. I called up the three network and their phone support is absolute pants, not to be in any way racist here but the Indian guy I was talking to hadn't a bloody idea what to do. He suggested I leave my wifi off for 20hrs so they could do "tests", a lie. I went into the 3 store today and got a replacement sim card and got my number etc transferred over to it, and now the problem is persistant, it just says "Emergency Calls Only" all over my house but still displays signal bars.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I don't think my phone is at fault, as when I was on another network before this the signal was fine everywhere.

Thanks
 

B. Diddy

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Re: Displaying Signal Bars but still saying "Emergency Calls Only"

Welcome to Android Central! Which carrier did you have prior to Three? Are you saying that previous carrier had good signal in your rural house? But that once you changed to Three, you found the signal to be poor in the house? It sounds more like a problem with the Three network's coverage. Different carriers may have significantly different coverage in a given area. And some networks also have more problems penetrating into buildings than others (in the US, T-Mobile is notorious for this, since they don't use as much of the lower frequency bands).

At your house, does the reception disappear as soon as you enter it, or only if you're deeper into the house? How about in other buildings in the area--is reception poor inside those buildings as well?
 

Reece_Brez

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Re: Displaying Signal Bars but still saying "Emergency Calls Only"

Hi,
It's more the general area of my house, not just inside. It's the fact that it displays signal bars that annoys me, and now that I got a replacement sim card it seems to be worse
 

B. Diddy

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Re: Displaying Signal Bars but still saying "Emergency Calls Only"

I wish I could help you more. My suggestion at this point would be to press Three network on the issue.
 

Reece_Brez

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Re: Displaying Signal Bars but still saying "Emergency Calls Only"

that's ok, any other suggestions welcome, Three are being absolutely useless on this issue
 

gozirra

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gozirra

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Re: Displaying Signal Bars but still saying "Emergency Calls Only"

As an added benefit, that website should be able to show you who has the best coverage in your area, rural or not, in case you need to switch away from Three.
 

Reece_Brez

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Re: Displaying Signal Bars but still saying "Emergency Calls Only"

I just accidentally fixed the problem haha, I set my Network mode to GSM Only (it was set to auto connect but kept giving me data roaming crap whenever I came home) and now I have full perfect signal

Thanks all for your help
 

gozirra

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Re: Displaying Signal Bars but still saying "Emergency Calls Only"

Heh I thought about suggesting looking at that, but figured when you went into the Three Store, that would be one of the first things they checked :) Glad you solved it!
 

Denise Sawyer

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Thank you for posting your fix, I've had the same issue here in Ireland with a UK phone suddenly even though in an "At Home" location. My partner has a phone with 3 too, so I knew it was something do with my handset as his signal is fine.
Cheers
Denise
 

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