# Why does my cell phone show "no service" periodically for a few hours? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 10, 2022, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727 "2022-07-10T21:04:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/1 "2022-07-10T21:04:12Z")
Here’s the question: is this a network/coverage problem or a hardware problem (signaling that my phone is about to go belly-up). My carrier is T-Mobile. I’m using a BlackBerry Key2, running on Android 8.1.0, the latest OS this phone can use. I’ve had the phone since July 2018 and I love it. This morning the screen showed “no service” for several hours. I did all the stuff you’re supposed to do, i.e., rebooted lots of times, turned airplane mode off and on before and after rebooting, took the sim card out and put it back in again, tinkered with settings. I even got in the car and drove around looking for coverage, thinking it might be a glitch at my house. No luck there. Then like magic, service just reappeared. Usually service reappears quite soon, after only a couple of reboots. This time it took hours. I don’t think anything I did made it come back. I think it was an anomaly, but a _network_ anomaly or a _hardware_ anomaly? This service disappearance/reappearance has happened about three times in the last few months; I’ve been with T-Mobile about a year. Before that I was with AT&T but ditched them after this 5G baloney. Also, T-Mobile has an Old People’s rate of only $50/mo. 🧓🏽 Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/2 "2022-07-10T21:17:59Z")
That phone is almost certainly dying. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/3 "2022-07-10T21:49:07Z")
😭 I was afraid of that… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/4 "2022-07-10T22:02:53Z")
The one thing I’ve found that can help when the radio goes out on a phone is to do a cold reboot. Don’t just tap restart, but hold the button down until the phone shuts off. That forces it to do a full reboot. Granted, I’ve not had the cellular signal go out. Just the wi-fi and Bluetooth. But I was surprised at how much better than worked than trying a regular restart. I was ready to have to go buy another phone. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/5 "2022-07-10T22:25:48Z")
I did turn the phone all the way off with the “power off” option several times. (In addition to “restarting” several times.) Is that the same thing as what you’re saying? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/6 "2022-07-10T22:38:16Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > This service disappearance/reappearance has happened about three times in the last few months If it has only happened a few times in several months, perhaps the network was down? You say you drove around in the car looking for coverage, and I’m not sure what you mean by this - were you inferring from the fact that you did not pick up a signal that the network was not the problem? But perhaps towers were out for a few hours over a large area. Do you have a positive control to better rule out this possibility - i.e. a neighbor with a phone on the same network who can confirm that they did not lose reception? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/7 "2022-07-10T22:42:16Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I did turn the phone all the way off with the “power off” option several times. (In addition to “restarting” several times.) Is that the same thing as what you’re saying? ⁢ No, I’m saying to force it off by holding the button down until it restarts. You don’t choose any menu items at all. It’s basically equivalent to just removing the battery (or unplugging a computer), rather than doing a proper shutdown. In my experience, a proper shutdown seems to trigger “fast loading” when the phone restarts. An improper shutdown makes it go through the whole slow loading procedure, where it shows the progress bar as the phone boots. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/8 "2022-07-10T22:44:44Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I’m saying to force it off by holding the button down until it restarts. Yes, I think this is the usual method (almost universal?) to force a full reboot on electronic devices. I recently discovered that it even works with the remote to force my TV to reboot (TVs have very few buttons these days). ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/9 "2022-07-10T23:01:37Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > were you inferring from the fact that you did not pick up a signal that the network was not the problem? But perhaps towers were out for a few hours over a large area. Do you have a positive control to better rule out this possibility - i.e. a neighbor with a phone on the same network who can confirm that they did not lose reception? Yes, I assumed that if coverage in my house was spotty, then I’d be able to pick up a signal driving around. When I moved to this house I had Sprint as my carrier, but I had to dump it because I was in roaming in my own living room. (!) I don’t get good OTA TV reception either.\* So it seemed a reasonable assumption that the problem was my location. All of this happened around 7 am, so I wasn’t in a position to call any neighbors. Besides, without a working phone-- you can’t call anyone! 🤦🏽‍♀️ * * * * * * > [@BigT](#): > > No, I’m saying to force it off by holding the button down until it restarts. You don’t choose any menu items at all. Okay, I will definitely keep that in mind! Ignorance fought. * * * * * * \* The relevance of that comment is that this is kind of an electronic dead zone. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/10 "2022-07-10T23:46:36Z")
Maybe not unrelated to this? > [@AT&T is sending me a phone unsoliticited, activating it, and disabling my current phone?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-t-is-sending-me-a-phone-unsoliticited-activating-it-and-disabling-my-current-phone/946406): > > I’ve gotten the texts that say “AT&T is shutting down our 3G network and your phone will be toast when we do,” blahblahblah. I’ve researched this and apparently my BlackBerry (unlocked and bought by me at amazon) is fine and will continue to work. But just now I got a text that says AT&T is sending me a new free cell phone to replace this one! And if I don’t activate it within 30 days, they will activate it automatically and my current phone will be disabled except for being able to call 911 an… Changes in their service can mean changes in the signal reception for specific frequencies and specific tower locations. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/11 "2022-07-11T00:24:02Z")
From the OP- > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > …My carrier is T-Mobile. …I’ve been with T-Mobile about a year. Before that I was with AT&T but ditched them after this 5G baloney. … ?? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/12 "2022-07-11T00:35:04Z")
If you do live in a semi-rural area with spotty coverage due to hills & dales, and a low population density, your signal at home may well depend on a single tower. Which tower will not be a high priority to repair versus one downtown that’s servicing thousands of customers, not 53. So if by “driving around” you meant the local neighborhood and your phone didn’t recover I’m now less convinced the phone is going bad versus you just being in a crappy low priority spot. OTOH, if you drove a few miles to the local town center, be that a village or a metropolis, and your phone still didn’t recover signal, _that_ I’d blame on the phone. I have a friend who lives in the hilly ruralia to the NW of Fort Worth. From a hill near her house you can see easily the skyscrapers of FTW. But out there on the half-square mile ranchettes, cell service sucks for every carrier. They can’t make money building that many towers to reach into each hollow for that few people. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/13 "2022-07-11T00:47:02Z")
Depending on your carrier and how new your phone is, [Wi-Fi Calling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Access_Network) may be the solution if you have a weak cell signal where you live or work. Basically, it sends your cell calls over the WiFi network. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/14 "2022-07-11T01:01:48Z")
From when I did this full time, I am fully aware of several outages that would affect a tower or even a region for a few hours. It wasn’t _frequent_ but it did happen. You have done all the the normal steps (and a well done to you @ThelmaLou, but you’ve managed equally well in other such threads before!) - so what I would look for is to see if the issue reoccurs / becomes more frequent. At or around once a month, I wouldn’t worry, probably half were a network hiccup, and the other was a phone hiccup, if it comes back after a quick restart, most likely the later than the former, but both can cause that error. If it keeps happening, you _could_ try a new SIM, but I wouldn’t bother - you switched carriers recently enough that I couldn’t imagine a SIM failure in that timeframe without physical or water damage, and you’d have probably seen it when re-inserting. for the record, this is T-Mobile’s issue specific troubleshooting flow (in the day I’d have sent this to you as a ‘do first’ if the issue reoccurs) and I believe you’ve pretty much done it all. > **[Signal issues / no service troubleshooting](https://www.t-mobile.com/support/devices/device-troubleshooting/signal-issues--no-service-troubleshooting)** > > Use this easy checklist to get help troubleshooting no signal or "no service" errors. Since you have BYOD (bring your own device) that’ll limit the troubleshooting tech support can do for you, but you can still use the ‘contact us’ from that flow via a different device and see if it’s a known outage. That includes online chat, and at least from when I was doing it, there was a dedicated twitter and facebook team that could follow the flow for online troubleshooting via DM. IF you have another device to do so of course. If you have that option, I’d normally use it to do a fast check to see if it was a local/tower issue, because if so, the rest of the troubleshooting isn’t going to do much. The only other thing I can say, is depending on your area, a single tower can cover up to a 45 mile radius (HUGE number of factors of course). If you’re in an area serviced by a single tower that burps, even driving around quite a distance may be keeping you in the same area of effect. LASTLY (I promise) if it happens again for any length, another way to check is to ask if those around you who are on T-Mobile as well are having the same issue. If the answer is yes, well, you know what’s going on. If they have service but you don’t… Phone problems. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/15 "2022-07-11T01:15:49Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If you do live in a semi-rural area with spotty coverage… I live in an urban neighborhood near downtown. Coverage is aimed at booming, heavily populated areas away from here. At least that’s what I think. * * * * * * @ParallelLines thanks for that long reply. I love long replies. This > [@ParallelLines](#): > > If you’re in an area serviced by a single tower that burps wouldn’t surprise me at all. I will mark your post for future reference. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2022, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/16 "2022-07-11T20:34:11Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The one thing I’ve found that can help when the radio goes out on a phone is to do a cold reboot. Don’t just tap restart, but hold the button down until the phone shuts off. That forces it to do a full reboot. That advice is also good for computers. My laptop regularly loses its Bluetooth. Over the weekend it lost its Wi-Fi. A cold reboot has always solved the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/17 "2022-07-12T00:11:23Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Coverage is aimed at booming, heavily populated areas away from here. At least that’s what I think. Yeah, you may be on the fringe of coverage by a very small number of towers. And then be at the mercy of how many other people are active at that time. I was a lead software engineer on cell phones for about 12 years, although I left the business before your phone was made. From the phone’s perspective, the kind of hardware issue you’d have would likely be a flaky connection. Not the sort of thing that persists for many hours, and then goes away for a long time. Depending on how the antennas are set up in that phone, it’s theoretically possible to get a little foreign material in the antenna connection, and then have that shake free later. That could mimic your scenario. I could also concoct some strange scenarios that would account for a software interaction. You could have corrupted some calibration data, which would make camping on the network harder. This can kinda self correct, if you get lucky and get a strong enough signal to work even without good calibration. But I consider that fairly unlikely. If I had to bet based on what’s been said in this thread, and my out-of-date architectural info, I’d go with network issue. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/18 "2022-07-12T00:18:03Z")
Thanks. I appreciate hearing from people who are or have been in the industry. > [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > Yeah, you may be on the fringe of coverage by a very small number of towers. This has been my thinking. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/19 "2022-07-12T02:52:23Z")
I’m shocked a phone from 2018 can still get service. It has to be 3g. I have several 3g and 4g phones that we use on our home wi-fi. They’re fine for web browsing and YouTube. Saves wear and tear on my new 5g phone battery. I feel the OP’s pain. I like small phones. Sadly the new models get bigger screens every year. They don’t even fit in the pocket. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727/20 "2022-07-12T03:00:05Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’m shocked a phone from 2018 can still get service. It has to be 3g. You’re kidding, right? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-cell-phone-show-no-service-periodically-for-a-few-hours/967727.md?page=2)