Posted on 03/12/2014 4:12:09 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A tech expert dismissed the Theory of the Phantom calls, explaining that ringing phones does not lead to any conclusions.
The missing MH370 has brought about multiple speculations, as there was no distress call from the pilots was received, and search efforts to date have not yielded any conclusive results.
Not knowing what has happened to their loved ones, relatives of MH370 passengers had resorted to calling their phones, and were greeted with ring tones.
Videos of the ringing phones have gone viral on social media, in turn leading to speculations that the jetliner is still safe.
Technology industry analyst and "E-Commerce Times" columnist, Jeff Kagan told CNN that no conclusions could be reached concerning the ringing phones.
"When a cell phone rings, it first connects with the network and attempts to locate the end-user's phone, if it doesn't find the phone after a few minutes, after a few rings, then typically, it disconnects and that's what's happening.
"So, they're hearing ringing and they're assuming it's connecting to their loved ones, but it's not. It's the network sending a signal to the phone letting them know it's looking for them."" he said.
Kagan said the technology meant he couldn't speculate on what ringing phones in this situation could mean.
"Just because you're getting ringing, just because the signs that we see on these cell phones, that's no proof that there's any - that's just the way the networks work." he said.
Then why when I turn my phone off, does it go to voicemail without ringing?
Thats what Mr. GG2 said. If the phone is destroyed it goes directly to voicemail.
I don’t think the article is entirely accurate.
I don’t know how much commonality there is between American cell-phone infrastructure and Malaysian infrastructure; theirs may just ring rather than going to voicemail, though I don’t know why.
Networks don't "look for phones", networks send a connect-request via the tower(s) reporting the phone active in their neighborhood.
Otherwise, how would they know which of the millions of cell towers worldwide to send the call to?
First the disappearance of the plane was like the Twilight Zone episode of Flight 33, now the phones are like the episode where little Billy Mumy’s dead grandmother called him on his toy telephone.
Ring back is sent you from your local phone office to let you they did something, been that way a long time.
Vanished Malaysia Airlines flight leaves relatives with anger and phantom phone calls
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/vanished-malaysia-airlines-flight-leaves-relatives-with-anger-and-phantom-phone-calls/2014/03/10/fdb78642-a862-11e3-b61e-8051b8b52d06_story.html
One of the most eerie rumors came after a few relatives said they were able to call the cellphones of their loved ones or find them on a Chinese instant messenger service called QQ that indicated that their phones were still somehow online.
A migrant worker in the room said that several other workers from his company were on the plane, including his brother-in-law. Among them, the QQ accounts of three still showed that they were online, he said Sunday afternoon. (Another story I read said one of those phones suddenly stopped being online sometime on Monday.)
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