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Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,520
Registered: ‎03-04-2012

Service during bad weather - Tracfone - question

I have a Tracfone, which I have had these phones for years - suddenly, especially during inclement weather, my phone calls drop before they connect.  I'm not understanding this  - can someone explain? 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,913
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Service during bad weather - Tracfone - question

 

@hoosieroriginal

 

I too have many different cell phones for years, all with Tracfone. While their coverage may have had different carriers, I never, not even once, have had a dropped call. The weather did not matter and it changes often and quickly here in Nebraska.

 

Had calls with not the best connections, but I believe those were caused by the carrier of the person that I called, not my Tracfone. My wife has a Tracfone and a Sprint no contract phone. When she calls me at home I ask her to use her Tracfone because with Sprint, it loses portions of our conversation(line breaks up for seconds at a time) every time she uses that phone.

 

No idea what your problem might be, maybe someone here has this experience with Tracfone, I have not. Sorry,

 

 

 

hckynut(john)

hckynut(john)
Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,520
Registered: ‎03-04-2012

Re: Service during bad weather - Tracfone - question


@hckynut wrote:

 

@hoosieroriginal

 

I too have many different cell phones for years, all with Tracfone. While their coverage may have had different carriers, I never, not even once, have had a dropped call. The weather did not matter and it changes often and quickly here in Nebraska.

 

Had calls with not the best connections, but I believe those were caused by the carrier of the person that I called, not my Tracfone. My wife has a Tracfone and a Sprint no contract phone. When she calls me at home I ask her to use her Tracfone because with Sprint, it loses portions of our conversation(line breaks up for seconds at a time) every time she uses that phone.

 

No idea what your problem might be, maybe someone here has this experience with Tracfone, I have not. Sorry,

 

 

 

hckynut(john)


@hckynut - I used to have Verizon and had dropped calls ALL THE TIME!  I've never had this problem with Tracfone until the last couple of weeks.  Wondering if something is going on with cell towers around here - thanks anyway John.  Kinda scary when you have bad weather that you can't dial out though.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,305
Registered: ‎06-08-2016

Re: Service during bad weather - Tracfone - question

This doesn't answer your question but texting will work when calls don't.

 


@hoosieroriginal wrote:

I have a Tracfone, which I have had these phones for years - suddenly, especially during inclement weather, my phone calls drop before they connect.  I'm not understanding this  - can someone explain? 


 

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,788
Registered: ‎08-18-2016

Re: Service during bad weather - Tracfone - question

[ Edited ]

@hoosieroriginal. Since this is a recent development its likely one of the closer cell towers you depend on is out of service. Could be a repair is needed or underway. Could be a tower contract is being re-negotiated. 

 

I had dropped calls and scrambled&delayed&lost texts using At&T towers, but none of that using Verizon towers.

Both are TracFone phones. It's not a TracFone thing.

It just depends where you are. For me the service is lousy with GSM technology but no problem with CDMA technology. Just location.

 

@software, my GSM service was SO bad I could send a text that took hours or days to arrive at it's destination.

After removing and reinserting the battery, my phone was flooded with approximately 75 (?) full, partial, and scrambled texts. The oldest had been sent to me over 6 months earlier, and were 'lost' all that time.

So yes, texts travel using phone lines. But no, there's no guarantee a text will go thru when a call won't. 

 

 

 

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,257
Registered: ‎10-07-2013

Re: Service during bad weather - Tracfone - question

We have cell service through Verizon.  However, in bad weather we hook up our simple land-line telephone to make sure we can make and receive calls no matter what.