Cel phone dials number but neither party can hear

I called the number of a restaurant from within side the restaurant from my Verizon-based cel phone. It was to play a joke on a friend who worked there but ended up stumbling upon an odd happenstance. The restaurant phone rang, but I never heard the "ring" on my cel phone, I couldn't hear their voice, they couldn't hear me. Tried it several times.

Called the same number with the same cel phone from a different location a distance from the restaurant and the above symptoms vanished. Heard it ring, they heard me, I heard them.

I encountered something like this once before, a friend in a different city called my land line from his cel - my phone rang but neither of us could hear the other. Yet, I could call his cel from my land line with no problem.

So what caused this? It also gave me cause for concern, wondering if this same phenomenon could prevent you from reaching emergency services from a cel phone.

It's happened to me every possible way -- I call, and can hear everything I should, but my called party, upon answering, seemingly hears nothing; I call, the ringing stops, and thereafter I hear nothing, but learn later that the called party couldn't figure out why I acted as if I were deaf; my phone rings, I answer, but the caller acts as if deaf, and I learn later that my voice never reached the caller; and, finally, my phone rings, I answer, but the line seems "dead", and I learn later that my caller wonders why I didn't answer his questions.

All possible combinations, as well, of landline phone and cell phone.

"What caused this?" "One-way voice circuits" is the key phrase in explanation. Or, "'Full-duplex' is just 'half-duplex, twice over, in opposite directions'." (So, if one half-duplex fails, ... .)

I'll let others ... um ... amplify on that :-) .

Cheers, -- tlvp

-- Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP

Cel phone dials number but neither party can hear - why? [telecom]