What Should You Do When Cell Service Goes Down?

When cell service goes down, first figure out whether the problem is your phone, your carrier or the whole area. Then switch from calls to short texts, which often get through when calls fail, and start saving battery. Check official sources by radio and follow your family's PACE plan. If you still can't reach anyone, go to your agreed meeting point at the agreed time.

What should you do in the first few minutes?

Most outages are short, but you won't know that at the start. A few quick steps tell you what you're dealing with.

• Toggle airplane mode on and off, or restart the phone, to force it to reconnect.
• Check whether Wi-Fi still works. If it does, internet messaging and Wi-Fi calling may still reach your family.
• Look at the status bar. If your phone shows SOS, your carrier isn't available, but emergency calls can often still go through on another carrier's network.
• Ask neighbors on other carriers whether their phones work. That tells you whether it's a carrier outage or an area-wide failure.
• Turn on a battery or hand-crank AM/FM radio or a NOAA weather radio for official information.

If you have an emergency, call 911 anyway. If the call won't connect, try again, and try text-to-911 where it's available. During the AT&T outage on February 22, 2024, which lasted at least 12 hours, the FCC found more than 92 million calls were blocked, including more than 25,000 attempts to reach 911. Even 911 can be hard to reach during a large outage, which is why a family plan matters.

Why do texts get through when calls don't?

A phone call needs a continuous connection for as long as you're talking. A text needs a tiny slice of network capacity for a moment, and your phone keeps retrying until it's delivered. When a network is overloaded after a disaster, texts often arrive late but still arrive, while calls fail outright.

So send short, complete texts. Say where you are, if you're OK and what you plan to do next, so one message does the work of a conversation. Keep any calls you do make brief so others can get through. If the towers are down entirely, neither calls nor texts will work, and you move to the next part of your plan.

How do you make your battery last?

A phone searching for a signal it can't find drains its battery quickly. Between check-ins, put the phone in airplane mode or low power mode, turn the screen brightness down and close apps you don't need. Leave Bluetooth on only if you're using it for something like a Meshtastic radio. Agree on check-in times with your family so you can turn the phone back on at the same moment instead of leaving it searching all day.

A charged battery bank can stretch your phone from hours to days. Our Power Outage Playbook covers keeping devices charged when the power is out too.

What does your PACE plan say to do next?

A PACE plan lists your family's ways to communicate in order (Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency) so nobody has to improvise. If the primary method, usually a normal phone call or group text, has failed, everyone moves to the alternate without waiting to talk it over. Families who agree on this ahead of time end up trying the same thing at the same time, which is the whole point.

A typical plan might move from group texts, to individual calls, to calling a relative outside the area who relays messages, to a radio check-in at set times. If you don't have one written down yet, our guide to making a family emergency communication plan walks through building it.

When should you head to the meeting point?

Your plan should say when to stop trying to reach each other and start moving. A common rule is that if a major event happens and you can't make contact within a set amount of time, everyone goes to the agreed meeting point. Pick one place near home and one outside the neighborhood in case home isn't reachable. Remember that schools have their own release procedures, so learn your kids' school plan and build around it rather than assuming you can pick them up wherever they are.

Where do radios fit?

Radios are usually the contingency or emergency layer of a PACE plan, the part that works when the phone network doesn't. A family with GMRS radios might agree to turn them on and listen on a set channel at the top of every hour. Meshtastic radios can carry text between family members with no network at all. Either way, the radios only help if they're charged and everyone has practiced with them. Our selection of BTECH GMRS and ham radios is a good place to start if you don't have a radio layer yet.

Common questions

Can I still call 911 if my phone says SOS?

Usually, yes. SOS means your own carrier isn't available but your phone may be able to place emergency calls through another carrier's network. Some phones can also send emergency messages over satellite.

Should I keep trying to call over and over?

No. Repeated calls add load to a network that's already struggling and drain your battery. Send a clear text, then check back at set intervals.

How long do cell outages usually last?

It varies widely, from minutes for a local glitch to days after major storm damage. Since you can't know at the start, act as if it might last and conserve battery early.

What if my family's phones are on the same carrier?

Then a carrier outage hits everyone at once. That's a good reason to have Wi-Fi messaging, a radio layer or a relative outside the area in your plan.

For a full walkthrough of how phone networks fail and every realistic backup for a family, read our eBook When the Phones Go Down.