cellular telephones

[franksolich]

Okay, now I don't know exactly why or what, so one can only speculate.

I received a cellular telephone for Christmas, with 6000 prepaid minutes.

I don't recall the brand (it's in the big city, not with me here), any more than a non-coin collector would pay attention to a 1950 five-cent piece to see if it's from the Philadelphia, or the Denver, mint.

Usually deaf people don't use telephones anyway.

I took the gift to the big city, to have someone program or set it up or activate it, whatever one does.  It's called "economy of effort;" I figured it was more useful to spend five minutes of her time, than two hours of mine.

She was on the telephone (land-line) for 45 minutes dealing with this.

Apparently the cellular telephone I got will not work in this area, up here on the roof of Nebraska.  (The telephone was purchased in Nebraska, but in a part of the state more-heavily populated.)  Up here, oftentimes, if one wishes to use a cellular telephone, he either has to drive out on the highway a couple of miles from town, or go to the top row of seats of the local football stadium.

The bottom line is that the company is mailing me a cellular telephone that ostensibly will work in this area, along with a prepaid mailer thing to send the other one back to them.

My question is this: same company, same brand, but different model of cellular telephone.

Why would this one not work for this area, and the one that's coming, ostensibly work for this area?  Maybe a larger-capacity battery? 

I dunno this stuff; not because I'm lacking brain-cells, but simply because telephonic stuff has never been important in this life.

[debk]

From what I understand...some of the pre-paid ones do not have the same "range" to them that the regular ones do....and even some of them are restricted to an area.

I have a friend who hates having a cell phone...and they have one just for emergencies...which to their kids means they can call mom constantly.  

Anyhow...the phone works right here in a 2-3 county range though in some areas - like when they are at the lake - only texting works. If they go over to NC...just barely over the state line...it doesn't work at all. Their's is not a pre-paid...just a limited range phone.

Most "regular" cell phones with service from Verizon, Sprint, AT&T...I think you can still pick if you want state-wide service or country-wide....it's all dependent upon the "plan" you pick.
 
That might be the situation with the one you received. Getting one straight from the source, specific to your area..should solve the problem.

Just make sure that you are able to send and receive text messages with your phone and that it is pre-programmed with a 911 emergency message so that all you have to do is press a specific button and it will go straight to 911 and get help to you.

The police/sheriff's department here takes donated cell phones and programs them that way and give them to the elderly, so I know that it can be done. Your local sheriff's office may be able to do that for you if it isn't done when you receive the phone. I'm sure there is some "techie" there who could do it.

[thundley4]

Not knowing what brand of pre-paid phone it is , makes this a guess.   My wife and I both use Trac-fones, because they are cheaper for no more than we use them for.  Trac-fone doesn't use their own cell network, they piggy back on the major carriers and pay those carriers.  

It may be that the phone you had was set up for one of the carriers that doesn't have good coverage in your area. They'll swap it out for a phone that is set up for the carrier that best covers your area.

Kind of confusing, but I hope it makes sense.

[LC EFA]

It probably has to do with available on carrier networks and network roaming capabilities.

In other words there may not be a usable available network with the specified carrier in some places and the phone has no roaming capacities to use other carriers networks (or there are no other usable networks).