Can you hear rings on your phone when you call someone with no reception?

Question

I tried calling my friend's cell phone for the past couple days and I couldn't reach him. When he finally called back, he told me that he had no reception. But what was weird was that i heard rings on my phone instead of it jumping to voicemail. is this possible, or is he just lying to me?

Answer 1

yep! and sometimes they will ring on your side but not on his phone even if he has a signal. i called my boyfriend who was standing right next to me and his phone never rang. he could make calls and everything but it just didn't ring. then he took out his battery for like 30 secs and it work. cell phones are weird that way.

Answer 2

Is this like the philosphical question, "If a tree falls in a forest, does it still make a sound when nobody is around to hear it?"

Seriously, though, unless there is a power outage at the phone company, there is no way for the communications system to know whether there is a phone hooked-up on the other end or not. This is true of landlines and cell phones.

Here's a simple test: just turn off your cellphone or unplug your landline phone, and then call yourself from a different phone. You'll hear it ring on your end (i.e., the calling phone, not the disconnected one!)! If the phone service includes voice mail, you'll probably be transferred to it automatically (a land-based answering machine will go on only if it's still connected to the phone jack) [WARNING: Don't remove your cellphone battery to "disconnect" it, because it may delete your settings and address book!!! Check your user's manual!]

Answer 3

I've sold cell phones for 6 yrs. Cell phone problems are not always black and white. Sometimes it will go straight to voice mail when calling someone who is in a weak area, sometimes you'll hear clicking, then voicemail, and sometimes it will ring a few times on your end(not theirs) and then go to voicemail. I believe the latter was what was happening. ps..taking the battery out will not remove your address book on a standard phone. actually you want to remove the battery and put it back in regularly for optimum phone performance.