No service issue? Sort of Urgent...

[mjaiteh]

Yesterday I was happily using my phone on my way back from school, and unfortunately I wasn't paying attention to the battery level, and it died
When I got home I placed it onto my wireless charger, and was ready to send a text message, and boom, no signal. I am using simple mobile, and normally have simple mobile written on my phone tile, but this time I was getting "T-MOBILE", and my service bars were full but no 4G like it usually says. I tried sending a text message and making a phone call, but both failed so I performed about 5 soft resets, and still I was getting the same issue. I thought about performing a factory reset, but I decided to step outside to see if I was possibly having network issues, and after a soft reset outdoors I finally get my simple mobile 4G back. Weird right?

Well today my phone froze(never happened before...) as I was playing Tetris Blitz, so I performed a soft rest like anyone else would(i think), and boom I get the "T-MOBILE" issue again. This happened around 3pm Eastern, and I've been performing soft resets all day and now I'm not getting any service whatsoever. Is this my cell phone provider's issue, or is this a flaw with my phone? Any suggestions before I perform a factory reset...? Please?

 

[Laura Knotek]

It sounds like a carrier issue, since Simple Mobile is a T-Mobile MVNO.

 

[mjaiteh]

It sounds like a carrier issue, since Simple Mobile is a T-Mobile MVNO.

Alright, so should I be calling simple mobile or T-mobile to ask about coverage in my area?

 

[Laura Knotek]

Alright, so should I be calling simple mobile or T-mobile to ask about coverage in my area?

You'll get coverage with Simple Mobile wherever there is T-Mobile coverage. However, you will not have any roaming capability. If T-Mobile coverage is not available, you will not get any coverage at all.

 

[mjaiteh]

You'll get coverage with Simple Mobile wherever there is T-Mobile coverage. However, you will not have any roaming capability. If T-Mobile coverage is not available, you will not get any coverage at all.

I understand that, but I have not left my current area, and I have always been getting 4g speeds and signal in this area since getting my first windows phone with no issues whatsoever.I just don't understand why this is happening very frequently all of a sudden. I was just able to get service back without leaving my area, but I'm afraid that if I ever have to turn my phone off or if my battery dies I will have to go through another 10 hours without cell phone service.

 

[waazzupppp]

I feel your pain, but let me explain an MVNO setup really quickly... When you phone registers to the network when you power it on, it should first say "Home" - then "T-Mobile" - then "Simple Mobile"... That's just the phone finding the SIM location (Home/Roam), registering to the network (T-Mobile/AT&T) and finally registering your account through T-Mobile to Simple Mobile. I get this on my wife's Red Pocket powered 920 and my Spot Mobile powered 810 all the time. Now... As a Simple Mobile customer, there are a few questions for you.

How much data have you used this billing cycle? Have you done anything that would be considered "streaming", "tethering", or other high network activity items in the last 2-3 weeks? Did the APN's hold when the battery died? And lastly... Did T-Mobile do any tower upgrades/maintenance today...?

So, you first call should be to Simple Mobile to check your account status... Then if everything looks good there, call T-Mobile (even a local store) and ask about outages/maintenance in the area and see if they know anything. If so, just wait it out and if not, then you might need a new SIM card...

 

[mjaiteh]

I feel your pain, but let me explain an MVNO setup really quickly... When you phone registers to the network when you power it on, it should first say "Home" - then "T-Mobile" - then "Simple Mobile"... That's just the phone finding the SIM location (Home/Roam), registering to the network (T-Mobile/AT&T) and finally registering your account through T-Mobile to Simple Mobile. I get this on my wife's Red Pocket powered 920 and my Spot Mobile powered 810 all the time. Now... As a Simple Mobile customer, there are a few questions for you.

How much data have you used this billing cycle? Have you done anything that would be considered "streaming", "tethering", or other high network activity items in the last 2-3 weeks? Did the APN's hold when the battery died? And lastly... Did T-Mobile do any tower upgrades/maintenance today...?

So, you first call should be to Simple Mobile to check your account status... Then if everything looks good there, call T-Mobile (even a local store) and ask about outages/maintenance in the area and see if they know anything. If so, just wait it out and if not, then you might need a new SIM card...

Thanks for the breakdown of MVNO's. I have not abused my data this billing cycle, but on my Radar I used to stream and tether and Simple Mobile would send me a warning and then cut off my data moment after.That doesn't seem to be the case in my problems now. I only lose service when my phone is powered off and then powered on again, and judging from your description of MVNO's it seems that my sim card is having trouble registering my account "through T-Mobile to Simple Mobile." So would that mean that my sim card is bad? It is a fairly new sim card, approximately one month old, I got it at the start of this billing cycle.

Note: It took me nine hours of resetting to get my phone service to restore the first time, and about three hours the second and third times. I am now carrying chargers with me everywhere so that my phone never turns off on me,and so far I haven't haf any issues.

I don't think this is a tower problem because even if T-Mobile performed tower upgrades I traveled a significant distance away from home such that those towers shouldn't affect my service elsewhere. I don't know exactly what you're talking about when you ask if the apn's hold, but in my Nokia access point settings I tried both T-Mobile and Simple Mobile Apn's and neither worked, but normally it doesn't make a difference anyway.

 

[mjaiteh]

Thanks for the breakdown of MVNO's. I have not abused my data this billing cycle, but on my Radar I used to stream and tether and Simple Mobile would send me a warning and then cut off my data moment after.That doesn't seem to be the case in my problems now. I only lose service when my phone is powered off and then powered on again, and judging from your description of MVNO's it seems that my sim card is having trouble registering my account "through T-Mobile to Simple Mobile." So would that mean that my sim card is bad? It is a fairly new sim card, approximately one month old, I got it at the start of this billing cycle.


Note: It took me nine hours of resetting to get my phone service to restore the first time, and about three hours the second and third times. I am now carrying chargers with me everywhere so that my phone never turns off on me,and so far I haven't haf any issues.

I don't think this is a tower problem because even if T-Mobile performed tower upgrades I traveled a significant distance away from home such that those towers shouldn't affect my service elsewhere. I don't know exactly what you're talking about when you ask if the apn's hold, but in my Nokia access point settings I tried both T-Mobile and Simple Mobile Apn's and neither worked, but normally it doesn't make a difference anyway.

My phone just randomly lost service without me turning it off this time, do I have an antenna problem? I picked up a phone call, and spoke for about a minute, and the call dropped,and soon after I couldn't make any phone calls or send any text messages, but my data was working perfectly fine(I made sure to check if wifi was on)... Then I completely lost all service and the tile just changed to "No Service". I'm confused is there anyone that can diagnose my problem? I don't want to buy a new sim card while the phone is the problem, and I don't want to buy a new phone if the sim card is the problem, and I also don't want to buy either if my provider is the problem. Help!

 

[mjaiteh]

I feel your pain, but let me explain an MVNO setup really quickly... When you phone registers to the network when you power it on, it should first say "Home" - then "T-Mobile" - then "Simple Mobile"... That's just the phone finding the SIM location (Home/Roam), registering to the network (T-Mobile/AT&T) and finally registering your account through T-Mobile to Simple Mobile. I get this on my wife's Red Pocket powered 920 and my Spot Mobile powered 810 all the time. Now... As a Simple Mobile customer, there are a few questions for you.

How much data have you used this billing cycle? Have you done anything that would be considered "streaming", "tethering", or other high network activity items in the last 2-3 weeks? Did the APN's hold when the battery died? And lastly... Did T-Mobile do any tower upgrades/maintenance today...?

So, you first call should be to Simple Mobile to check your account status... Then if everything looks good there, call T-Mobile (even a local store) and ask about outages/maintenance in the area and see if they know anything. If so, just wait it out and if not, then you might need a new SIM card...

Followed your steps to the tee, sim card was the issue....I don't understand how the sim card could stop working but it just did. Thanks.

 

[waazzupppp]

No problem... Let me know if you want a spare or two sent your way... Although, I would recommend you give Spot Mobile a try... I am very happy with them!

 

[mjaiteh]

Spare simple mobile cards? What network does spot mobile run on?

 

[waazzupppp]

Spot runs off T-Mobile as well... I'm a proponent of all things prepaid, so I would love to send one your way. The $39.99 plan is for 1GB 4G, the $49.99 is for 2GB and $59.99 is for 3GB... That's not quite as good of deal as Simple, but the service has been much stronger for me. Simple I tended to get speeds in the 6-8Mbps range and with Spot I regularly see 15Mbps... I'm not sure if that is an issue with Spot having a different deal or not, but I like the support and the service.

As far as the cards go, I run www.4gfastdata.com and www.getsmartphones.info and get discounted SIM cards and discounted tax free refills, so I can easily send a few your way...