> 
> On Dec 13, 2023, at 3:56 PM, charles meyer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> My esteemed listmates,
> 
> I'm trying to help a person who's poor but not quite poor enough for a free phone.
> 
> She really only needs to use her old LG Rebel 4 (which she had Tracfone service which expired 2 years ago) for 911 calls.
> 
> The FCC requires all phones to be able to dial 911.
> 
> Once she powers on the LG it displays it can't find any WIFI.
> 
> I Googled that and it seems a cell can get stuck in WIFI mode.
> 
> I found no answers re: how to get an LG out of WIFI mode and I emailed LG for tech help but received no reply.
> 
> So many articles share how you just dial 911 and connect but none describe how to get to the  Keypad to even dial.


There was a point when phones had a way to make an emergency call from the Lock Screen (where it makes you enter the password), so you shouldn’t actually need the keypad to be able to call 911.

… unfortunately, if the phone isn’t booting up to get that far, I don’t know what to do.  You’d probably need to find people that are familiar with that specific phone, or try to find some other hand-me-down phone.

In the past, I would have recommended older phones from back before the touch screen days, as some of those had 2-week standby times, but with the phaseout of 3G, it’s quite likely they won’t work any more.

-Joe

Ps.  If anyone is doing this because of an abusive household, it is important to shut the phone off completely should they have another emergency broadcast test, as that will alarm even when phones are set to silent.