How to make your cell phone Not Reachable

There are times when you wished you should be in the mountains away from mobile network reach.
Or sometime you wanted to avoid a call but did not want the caller to know you are not picking calls intentionally?

Definitely you will not switch-off the mobile. The caller will hear a message saying your mobile is switched off. That means you intentionally swiched it off!

So what if the caller hears a message like “the phone is not reachable”, or “out of network”?

Definitely I will not advise to buy a cell phone signal jammer. It will jam all your mobiles’ signal in the vicinity. You just want to make one of your mobiles not-reachable, right? And you also do not want to jam others’ mobiles.

‘Mobile not reachable’ is a good excuse for everything you wanted to avoid. Now see how easily you can do it. After all it was the operator’s fault. Not yours!

There are simple solutions:

Solution #1: No-signal spots inside your house:
You may find some places in your house with low/no mobile network signal. You can keep te phone there and try calling to it. If you hear ‘not reachable’, then that’s what another caller will hear too.
But it’s not fullproof. The signal strength fluctuates continuously and some time the caller may be able to ring your phone.

Solution #2: Switch off your mobile while not reachable:
Make sure you are not in the mobile network’s reach. Now switch off the mobile phone. The network will not get any idea of you switching off the mobile. Now wherever you go, the network will think your mobile is still unreachable.

Solution #3: Cell Phone Signal Blocker Pouch:
Yes, this works! These pouchs are available for purchase everywhere online and we tested with two purchased from different sources online.

These pouches are just like your mobile phone covers, or like your small money purse. See the pictures. Jut slip the mobile into the pouch and you are unreachable.

These mobile signal blocker pouches usually cost between $10-$30 depending on where you buy. There are some reliable online stores selling it. Here’re some more from Amazon India:

And a large one:

How it works:
Basic principle. FARADAY’s MESH. Electromagnetic signals can not pass through a mesh/net where the hole size is smaller than the wavelenght of the signal. So these pouches have nothing but a cloth made of superfine metallic strings. And this cloth blocks almost all signals in the widely-used mobile phone spectrum. And yes, this pouch can help you avoid detection of your mobile by it’s emissions.

Solution #4: Keep the mobile in metallic container:
The same effect as in solution #3 above can be obtained by keeping the mobile in a metallic closed container. I did not try this. Do try at home with your biscuit tin and let us know.

Problems being not reachable on cell phone:
Yes, there could be problems. You never know when you miss a very important call.

Another thing is, when your phone is not getting network signal, it tries it’s best to acquire it. And during that process it spends way too much of energy, i.e. battery power. So if your full charged battery gives 3 days of mobile usage under normal network, it may get drained out in 5-8 hours under no-signal condition.

I have NEVER used the pouches except on the first day they arrived by post. And that usage was only for testing. It’s good to let people know you do not want to pick their calls, than to be passively negative.