Hi all again, Okay, so I just called AT & T tech support and as per the advice I was given, all I needed to do is to power down my phone and power it back up again, and now my phone is fine again. In case this info is helpful to anyone else in the future, what that entails is shutting off the phone, removing the battery pack, removing the SIM card, wiping the contacts clean, and putting it all back together again in reverse order. Give it a few minutes to reset itself. The techie also suggested i power off the phone for 30 seconds every day, for it to synchronize with the towers, or something like that... (I don't understand ...sounds like Homeland Security at work...) If someone understands what that is all about, maybe you can drop me a line...I havev had this phone for over 3 years and have never done that... Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience in writing to you earlier... Thanks, Deb