If you do not pay your bill, you will not get incoming calls or messages
and you cannot call or send messages. Your phone will not work if you
do ot pay for it.
According to the article, and other information I've been reading, there
is more than one possible mode a GPRS/EDGE phone network can be
configured to operate in, 001 and 002 being the most common. In mode 001
if an incoming call occurs during data use the data session will be
terminated and the call will come through. In mode 002, the call will go
straight to voicemail. Apparently the majority of 2G networks in the
world use mode 002!
It's possible to use the iPhone's field test mode to see what Network
Operating Mode is for the network - to do this, first disable 3G, then
go into field test mode by dialing *3001#12345#* from the phone app
keypad then pressing call, then go to GSM Cell Environment -> GPRS
Information, and scroll down to "Network Operating Mode".
I've checked this for all 5 networks and in all cases (at least where I
live) it was mode 002 - the mode which doesn't allow for incoming calls
when 2G data is in use.
The ramifications of all this are that any time you use data on
GPRS/EDGE you will miss incoming calls and unless you have a missed call
service with your provider, you won't even know you missed them, as
they will not show up on the phone. (And the missed call texts
themselves will be delayed as well)
Not only can this be caused by actively using an app such as safari, (or
leaving a data using app active with the screen locked) but background
mail checks and push notifications will cause it as well.
So if your phone is lying there unattended and it happens to do it's 30
minute (or whatever) mail check just before someone tries to call you -
missed call.
Having push notifications enabled is even worse, because it tries to
keep an active data session as much as possible, and re-establishes this
connection every time the data connection is interrupted.
One good example of this is if you have push notifications active, try
making or receiving a call, hang up, and call the phone back in less
than 30 seconds or so of the previous call - missed call.
The reason is that the GPRS/EDGE connection was interrupted by the first
call, so when the call ended the phone immediately tries to
re-establish the push data connection, and on a slow connection this
takes up to a minute to do and then go idle before the phone can receive
another incoming call.
I'm stunned that a problem of this magnitude (which is not really the
phones fault at all, but is made far worse by turning on push
notifications and background email checking) has been seemingly covered
up and glossed over for so long - the O2 UK forum has a message thread
with over 500 people complaining of frequent missed calls, with no
official acknowledgement from O2 on what the cause is, with the only
suggestion being to turn off push notifications. (Which will ease the
problem but won't cure it)
What baffles me is why the networks don't just run in mode 001, which
allows incoming calls to interrupt the data session - surely an incoming
call is more important than finishing downloading an email ? Surely
with more and more phones relying on data and trying to hold persistent
push connections open, this is only going to become more and more of an
issue ?
Perhaps someone like Planner could comment on why networks might not be
using mode 001, I'm assuming it either has some drawbacks or
compatibility problems with some phones, or is an added cost to support.
Is there any likelyhood of this ever changing ?
Now it makes sense why if you're using a network where you tend to get
3G most of the time (such as I do with Orange or 3) then the problem is
minor because you're not on 2G very often, but if you're on a network
where you will be using GPRS/EDGE a lot (cough, O2) then you really
can't afford to leave push notifications enabled, unless you like missed
calls...
Memory full warning notifications are shown once the SMS memory reaches 80% full, which is 80 out of 100 SMS.
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