So you travelled to a location in a rural area for a job only to find out, on getting there, that your service provider has no coverage in that area. To make matters worse, you cant get other providers' SIM, if at all they have coverage there, since its a rural area. So you are stuck with a phone that has no reception, and cut off from your family.
As weird as this sounds, it has happened to so many of us. One can actually avoid this kind of thing by simply heading to opensignal to see how where covered your next place of assignment is and what service providers are there.
Source http://www.timigate.com/2016/01/how-to-see-gsm-coverage-in-your-area.html#more