If our phone doesn’t have any bars, how can you still call for help? Will the “Emergency Calls Only” work?
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Normally when you try to make a call, cell networks will refuse to transmit your call if the phone you’re calling from does not subscribe to their service. It’s not so much that your phone is *incapable* of using those networks as much as just that the networks themselves won’t allow you. Your phone shows no bars because there might as well be no bars, even thought there are – just no bars it can use.
For emergency calls though, carriers are [legally obligated by the FCC](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-A/part-9/subpart-C#p-9.10(b)) to transmit all 911 calls. So if you dial 911, your phone is allowed to use any network it’s physically capable of reaching.
This won’t help if you’re somewhere so remote that there’s just no carrier at all within range.
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