Drop-offs are common in rural areas. This happens when the battery in phone is completely charged. At times problems are traced back to weak batteries.
A granddaughter and her husband moved to a rural area and found their cellphones would not work from their home. They had just signed up with AT&T before the move. They have to drive about two miles before getting dependable service. At the one-mile point they get on and off service. I get good service at their home using my Verizon phone.
Unlike TV shows all cellphone calls cannot be immediately traced. Systems are improving but the taxes spent to pay for the improvements were direct elsewhere. California and New York are the big offenders, but the problem appears to be nationwide.
If a call drops off and the dispatch center can identify where it came from they need to send resources to the call location. I have recieved multiple calls within a few minutes, the phone rings and there is nobody on the other in, and you call hear the call disconnect. It becomes stressful because you want to provide a service to people in need.
A major problem is that Command Centers get a lot of crank calls. They think they are funny, and it is when the crank caller is caught. But all calls have to be treated as legitimate.
When the systems started changing from analog to digital, most of the phones became 30% less effective in rural areas. I know of a lot of rural folks who were dependent on their old bag phones but with the change off they lost communications. They might want to check on how much campaign money their congressmen took to bring about the change. The change is not to the benefit of folks living in rural America.
