ELI5 Emergency Calls Only - If there is no cellphone signal, how does "emergency calls only" mode work?

ELI5 Explain Like I'm 5: Bite sized answers to stuff you should know about - in a mini podcast

If there is no cellphone signal, how does the "emergency calls only" mode works? How does the cell tower system coordinate to make this possible?

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Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community, and specifically the following reddit users whose questions and responses formed the basis of this conversation: dcardeno, not_anonymouse, Pogoyoyo1 and billythewolfde.

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