micky wrote:
Last month, using an Android phone on ATT, a Gophone,, I tried to call
my nephew on his home phone (FWIW, he has no cell phone.) But it
appears his father changed the phone number when I wasn't looking, so
I had the wrong number. I called and it changed to the screen it
uses during dialing, but a moment after that it changed to some other
screen and clearly wasn't dialing. The possible dialing period was
only a second or two. But I got no message, no cell phone
equivalent of "The number you have reached is not available." I was
using a headset but I got nothing aural either.

I did this 3 times and after the third time, a message displayed on
the top line (the notification line) that said "Emergency service
only" or almost that. Isn't that the message they give when
someone hasn't paid his bill, or he's switched his contract to a
newer phone and the older phone is only useful to call the police,
fire, ambulance?

I assumed what had happened is that I buy 100 dollar gophone cards
that last for 365 days, and that the time period had expired (I
hadn't made other calls that day, none since the previous day.)

If the message doesn't mean that I'm no longer eligible to make phone
calls, what does it mean?

I was in the basement of a new, 10-story building, so there was some
iron above me, but if I had no bars and no signal, there would have
been no cryptic "Emergency service only" message either, right??

Later in the day the phone worked fine.

Thanks a lot for any help you can give.

That's the message I get when there's not a cell tower in range . We get it
a lot out here in the woods ... no coverage at all down here in The Holler .
It's spotty on the road into town .

--
Snag