[johndough]

Hello everyone,

I've done a search on the forum for this SOS signal, and I've seen a few posts, but none that I read were about the Bold. I've had my Bold for about a month now, and this is the first week that I've encountered this problem.

Here are a few things that I noticed before the official red SOS appeared.

1. I'm an avid snowboarder and I don't like riding with my phone on me. I leave it OFF in the car. It's been pretty cold in Vermont the past few weekends, and sometimes when i turn the phone back on i get "edge" instead of "EDGE." After a few minutes things go back to normal.

2. 2 days ago ( when i first noticed the SOS ) issue, was the first time I used a CURVE charger for my Bold. I wrote a quick post and some members confirmed it was ok. While my Bold was on the Curve charger is the first time I noticed the SOS. It also had a SIM card message. Could this be part of the reason? Sorry, I'm no blackberry master.

3. Yesterday this happened again while I was visiting a friend at the hospital. Everything was working fine, and when I was in the visiting room, the SOS appeared. This time without the SIM card message. At first I thought it was because all service is blocked in the hospital, but my friend with an iphone had no issues conencting to the internet and using his phone.

Both time's this happened, I've turned the device on and off and things were normal again. I've read that this could be an issue with the SIM card being defective OR ATT network outages. If it is the latter, why did my friend not receive that error on his iphone?

I just want to make sure that it's not the actual device.

Help?

THanks.

[anon(2088)]

I haven't encountered any of these issues. The only time I've even gotten an SOS is when I was in a server lab on an 8820 that had concrete walls and I wasn't the only person not getting a signal. Did you get a brand new sim with your device?

[johndough]

Yes, i am a new ATT user switching from Tmobile to ATT.

[anon(2088)]

Where are you located? I recommend putting a shout out to others in your area to see if they are having similar examples.

[johndough]

Located in NYC...I don't think any of my other friends are having this issue. I havent noticed that it's been a daily thing just yet...and as of now i am assuming my SIM may be bad. I'll keep everyone posted on whether or not i receive this error again.

Doe snayone know if using that curve charger could have fried my phone/sim? or if leaving the phone in 10 degree weather can damange it in any way?

THanks,

[Branta]

SOS means you have a radio signal with adequate strength but you don't have permission to use it. This usually means the good signal belongs to a competing network and your home network is down, or your SIM is incorrectly provisioned by the service provider. It also indicates your phone's receiver is probably working correctly.

If you have a fault on your phone (or in screened or very remote areas) and it is not receiving any signals you should get the 'x' indicator instead of 'sos'

[Kronk]

I get that all the time at work. I believe it means that you are in a low service area but can still make a call to emergency services like 911. Will have to look into it.

[Kronk]

This is from the Bold user guide:

Emergency calls

About emergency calls

Your BlackBerry� device is designed to make emergency calls even when it is locked or the SIM card is not inserted. If the connection to the wireless network is turned off when you initiate an emergency call, your device is designed to connect to the wireless network automatically. If you are outside of a wireless coverage area and the SOS wireless coverage indicator appears, you can only call emergency numbers.

You can only make emergency calls by typing official emergency access numbers (for example, 911 in North America or 112 in countries
that are part of the European Union).

Bolded the part I thought was relavant. No pun intended.

[samsonsumitra]

i was under the impression that when you have SOS...you can only dial 911...the person who said you might be in a competeing persons network might be right...but i think the ionly number you can dial when in SOS mode is 911...

i get SOS everyday for like 2 seconds when i get out of the elavator...i dont think its anything worth worrying about.

[Elsongs]

I ride the Metro to work. There is no cell coverage in the subway here in Los Angeles (yet) but a couple weeks ago for one day I noticed instead of "NO NETWORK" my phone had the red SOS signal.

I wanted to test it out, but obviously I didn't want to tie up the 9-1-1 line with a non-emergency call. So I called 3-1-1 (city information line here) and I got a fast busy signal tone.

I wonder if they're testing things out for emergency cell coverage underground. I think that'd be valuable for disaster/HS purposes.

[johndough]

SOS means you have a radio signal with adequate strength but you don't have permission to use it. This usually means the good signal belongs to a competing network and your home network is down, or your SIM is incorrectly provisioned by the service provider. It also indicates your phone's receiver is probably working correctly.

If you have a fault on your phone (or in screened or very remote areas) and it is not receiving any signals you should get the 'x' indicator instead of 'sos'

Does this mean i need to go and have my sim replaced?

[Kronk]

No, not if you can still make normal calls and you're not getting the SOS signal when you should be getting bars.

Depending on where I sit the phone on my desk at work, I'll have "No Service", "SOS", or 3 bars. There's lots of variables at play, such as distance from a tower, building materials and configuration, EM interferance, etc.

If it really bothers you though, call AT&T and request a new SIM.

[samsonsumitra]

i would hate cell phone service on the subway....teh last thing i want to hear on my way to and from work is a million peopel yapping.

[Branta]

Does this mean i need to go and have my sim replaced?

Probably not. You should get Customer Disservice to check your account provisioning first. There is a small chance you have a defective SIM but if it works properly most of the time you are more likely to be seeing network coverage problems.

One clue might be the areas where you get failure (or working). If there's a reproducible pattern as you move around over several days, that's a strong indication for bad coverage or broken cell towers.

It is also worth reminding everyone here - GSM uses 2 channels, the control channel, and the 'working' channel when you are in an active call. It is possible to get a good link on the control channel, but the tower has zero slots free on available working channels so the call fails.

[Branta]

i was under the impression that when you have SOS...you can only dial 911...the person who said you might be in a competeing persons network might be right...but i think the ionly number you can dial when in SOS mode is 911...

If you have enough signal to make an emergency call on your home network you should get normal service, not SOS. If the only useable signals are from foreign networks where roaming is not permitted for billable calls you will get SOS because they still allow emergency calls.

i get SOS everyday for like 2 seconds when i get out of the elavator...i dont think its anything worth worrying about.

This is probably because your phone has seen the radio signal and started to authenticate, but the control station has not yet responded with permission to use the network. These things are fast, but not that fast.

[johndough]

Probably not. You should get Customer Disservice to check your account provisioning first. There is a small chance you have a defective SIM but if it works properly most of the time you are more likely to be seeing network coverage problems.

One clue might be the areas where you get failure (or working). If there's a reproducible pattern as you move around over several days, that's a strong indication for bad coverage or broken cell towers.

It is also worth reminding everyone here - GSM uses 2 channels, the control channel, and the 'working' channel when you are in an active call. It is possible to get a good link on the control channel, but the tower has zero slots free on available working channels so the call fails.

sorry new to this black berry stuff..what does "getting customer Disservice" to check account provisioining mean? how do i do that?

Thanks everyone for all your help and input. Greatly appreciated.

[Branta]

Account provisioning - the flags and permissions set by your provider to show what features you have paid to use. Sometimes on a new account there's a finger problem during setup.

Customer DisService - you should find a phone number listed for Customer Service. After a few hours listening to Hold music, call centers, and reps with to impenetrable accents - you will understand why 'DisService'.

[Beesuu]

Hey i actually have this sorta problem now... basically new phone bold 9700 today, unlocked today fido carrier now and randomly just get SOS signal... wonder if its a bad sim too... the sim was about 2 years old from purchasing Iphone 3G

Any idea for this symptom? thanks