topic Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue in Get Support

Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

baz1 — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 08:31:33 GMT

Hi there,

since a few weeks, I noticed that, many times, I cannot establish voice calls nor have my SMS received in time. For some reason, even when I know my correspondent is expecting my call and we both have all of our reception bars, my call tries to connect for 30 secs to a minute (an abnormally long time) then drops straight to voicemail without ringing. Repeat-calling leads to the exact same result. Of course, much time is wasted trying to re-establish the connection.

At first I suspected the old phone to be somehow dying, switched to a less-old iPhone, but the problem persisted. The phone isn't the culprit here. Since we now both use iPhones, trying the same call over audio FaceTime works almost every time, but I'd rather not burn my precious data on what used to be an easy, cellular voice connection.

SMS aren't received in a timely many either: I may send a message at 21:45 (far from peak time), and only have it received around midnight. Same goes if I send an iMessage instead.

In fact, it has become so pervasive that I am surprised each time a call goes through without first trying 6 or 7 times, or a SMS.

What is going wrong on PM's network? Given the lack of reliability, I am considering switching to a more reliable provider.

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Oct 2021 22:12:44 GMT

@baz1

you can try reseat the SIM card and Make sure your phone is off before removing your SIM card,

1. power off your device

2. take out the SIM card,

3. waiting a 1 minute,

4. put it back and power on,

5. toggling airplane mode off/on,

and do again Rebooting your phone,

*what is mean for Rebooting the phone means to turn off your phone and turn it back on again.

and you can try to reset network settings on an IPhone

Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

This also resets Wi-Fi networks and passwords,

or visit Here link,

and go Changing APN Settings On An IPhone

click Here link,

How to reset network settings on an Android device

Open the Settings app on your Android.
Scroll to and tap either "General management" or "System," depending on what device you have.
Tap either "Reset" or "Reset options."
Tap the words "Reset network settings."

or visit Here link,

and go Changing APN Settings On Android device

click Here link,

Ensure you have the correct APN settings by visit Here link,

Select the brand and model of your phone, After doing so, you will be provided with the exact APNs required for your phone on our network.

for iphone go to Settings > Messages > To turn iMessage on or off,

Turn your data on to send a Picture Messaging in world-wide,

if your data is off and your home internet wifi is on is not going through the Picture or a video Messaging,

you have to do this to is going through you will need to turn your data on to send a Picture or a video Messaging in world-wide,

make sure your Data is on.

or can you try manually selecting network "3G ONLY" or WCDMA only,

for iPhone visit Here link

or Here link

for android visit Here link ,

and do Rebooting your phone

This is quick and simple,

and if still not fix it please you Have To Submit a Ticket To Contact Customer Support Agent by CS_Agent ,

Explain your issue to they can solve your issue, they are nice service Team the will help you 100%.

Here’s how to contact Customer Support Agent by CS_Agent,

Get help with your account the easy way by starting a conversation with our virtual assistant, SIMon. It’ll take you to relevant help articles, or if it’s something more urgent, it can help you submit a ticket to Customer Support Agent by CS_Agent,Click Here link,to get started.

or you can send a private message to Customer Support Agent by CS_Agent, by Click Here link,
You’ll need to be logged in to your Community account for the link to work.

please include in your message,
your account number,
your phone number,
your account 4 digit pin,
your Email address,

Customer Support Agent by CS_Agent, will Response to your inbox by private message
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Good Luck...

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

Yummy — Sun, 10 Oct 2021 22:10:58 GMT

Where are you located? Maybe there is some on.off outage there.

I have not experienced any similar issues in Ontario, York region, ever, for the past 5-6 months.

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

benfatto — Sun, 10 Oct 2021 23:54:28 GMT

@baz1 Try setting phone to LTE off. That will force usage to the 3G network which can be more stable. Likely less busy overall than LTE these days.

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

hTideGnow — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 00:02:16 GMT

@baz1 try using 3G only in the network settings and see how any difference?

Also, what province and city you are at? Any chance you are in Winnipeg?

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

esjliv — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 02:43:16 GMT

@baz1 wrote:
Hi there,

since a few weeks, I noticed that, many times, I cannot establish voice calls nor have my SMS received in time. For some reason, even when I know my correspondent is expecting my call and we both have all of our reception bars, my call tries to connect for 30 secs to a minute (an abnormally long time) then drops straight to voicemail without ringing. Repeat-calling leads to the exact same result. Of course, much time is wasted trying to re-establish the connection.

At first I suspected the old phone to be somehow dying, switched to a less-old iPhone, but the problem persisted. The phone isn't the culprit here. Since we now both use iPhones, trying the same call over audio FaceTime works almost every time, but I'd rather not burn my precious data on what used to be an easy, cellular voice connection.

SMS aren't received in a timely many either: I may send a message at 21:45 (far from peak time), and only have it received around midnight. Same goes if I send an iMessage instead.

In fact, it has become so pervasive that I am surprised each time a call goes through without first trying 6 or 7 times, or a SMS.

What is going wrong on PM's network? Given the lack of reliability, I am considering switching to a more reliable provider.

@baz1

Some culprit possibilities:

1. Network

Check for outages in your area: https://www.telus.com/en/on/outages

or https://downdetector.ca/status/telus/map/

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Text-From-PM-About-Changes-To-Manitoba-Prepaid-Network/m-p/650309/highlight/true#M129645

2. Cell phone - trying the SIM into another phone is a good test.

Ensure your phone has the latest software installed.

Do a Reset of your phone's Network Settings.

3. SIM card - Can you also try to clean the contact points of your SIM card, perhaps some debris is disturbing the connection.

SIM's can go faulty, but I believe this is rare.

3. Account - something needing reset or reprovisioned, maybe? Only CSAs can do this.

Methods to reach them here:

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/contact-a-moderator

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

baz1 — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:09:38 GMT

As for my location, this usually occurs in Montreal downtown close to Lionel-Groulx, as well as Cote des Neiges area.This doesn't appear to be a one-off outage as this connection failure happens pretty much every time I go to these places (The P&A supermarket is one place where I can *never* get a voice connection), no matter the time of the day. The iPhone was fully reset when I switched from the Android handset.

In fact, I first turned on LTE because I couldn't get a reliable connection on 3G either (ironically). I seldom use data (this is a grandfathered plan which originally had NO data, PM simply thrown in 1GB), but if LTE was less reliable, I would have equal trouble with FaceTime.

As for the APN settings for data: originally, the iPhone got ltedata.apn. I changed it to sp.mb.com as shown in the help page, but will that help for a voice connection? I didn't have much problems with data-using services like

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

hTideGnow — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:16:29 GMT

@baz1 A quick look at it show there is decent Telus coverage

You tried to set it as 3G only , i guess?

did you check any of your friends using Telus, Koodo or even Bell and see if they have similar issue?

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

t_p — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:22:52 GMT

@baz1 wrote:
As for my location, this usually occurs in Montreal downtown close to Lionel-Groulx, as well as Cote des Neiges area.This doesn't appear to be a one-off outage as this connection failure happens pretty much every time I go to these places (The P&A supermarket is one place where I can *never* get a voice connection), no matter the time of the day. The iPhone was fully reset when I switched from the Android handset.

In fact, I first turned on LTE because I couldn't get a reliable connection on 3G either (ironically). I seldom use data (this is a grandfathered plan which originally had NO data, PM simply thrown in 1GB), but if LTE was less reliable, I would have equal trouble with FaceTime.

As for the APN settings for data: originally, the iPhone got ltedata.apn. I changed it to sp.mb.com as shown in the help page, but will that help for a voice connection? I didn't have much problems with data-using services like

If your issue is very localized, that means there are problems with signal strength in those areas, not network outage. Could be some buildings or structural "shields" that affect reception.

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

BlueB — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:23:08 GMT

@baz1

I love the suggestions people mention about forcing your phone on the 3G network and trying that. That has often fixed similar problems. (Try a reboot too!)

Are you able to check, then post what your signal levels are (dB and ASU)? That could give us a clue too. If you're out in a different urban location, do you notice less issues?

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

hTideGnow — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:28:13 GMT

@BlueB wrote:
@baz1
I love the suggestions people mention about forcing your phone on the 3G network and

@BlueB

haha.. you were not laughing at me, right? Yes, voice use 3G and by leaving it 3G only, the phone doesn't have to switch back and forth between LTE and 3G and that delay could caused drop calls.

I do have a technically reason , I know some people are using this to solve other issue unrelated to voice 🙂

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

BlueB — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:33:24 GMT

@hTideGnow

I was serious - I think your idea of setting the phone to 3G only is a legitimately good idea. There could be many reasons why it could fix the problem - switching back-and-forth, different frequencies/interference, general network strength/signal, etc. 🙂

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

hTideGnow — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:22:28 GMT

@baz1 I am looking at the map again, in fact, there are quiet many towers around P&A if my location is correct:

Was it every working in those area and just getting bad lately or never work well for you?

Again, as I said earlier, try to ask any friends with Telus and see what they say. If you find Telus/Koodo stores in these area, go in and ask the sales there about the reception there. Maybe it is a know issue.

Downtown areas usually have good signal but it could also be interference problem. For example, there are couple known spots I am aware of that never got Rogers signal because of the interference issue from CN Tower

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

BlueB — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:34:31 GMT

@baz1

You're getting some really good details from @hTideGnow. Signal propagation (ie. how the cell signal bounces around to reach your phone) is extremely complex and complicated. Interference and other issues can create a mess even in straight-forward situations.

I definitely support the idea of asking around + walking around to see how signal is. Let us know how it goes - we're all learning here too! 🙂

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

gpixel — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 02:19:42 GMT

@baz1

I'm also starting to experience worst signal when calling etc. Telus is shutting down 3g. this is most likely the cause...

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

baz1 — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 17:33:17 GMT

There are some places downtown that recurringly have low signal strength, but this connection issue occurs whare I do have 3 bars out of 4 (sorry, no dB reading as I don't know exactly how to access those numbers on iPhone)

Since switching from ltedata.apn to sp.mb.com, I cannot even establish a data connection anymore. So, no FaceTime.

It recently occurred late at night (circa 2AM): first call yielded voicemail, second was successful. The lowest reception phone had 2 bars out of 4.

As for the Telus towers / antennas, Adonis is close to P&A, and that's one place where the signal is reliably crappy.

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

jor123 — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 22:04:59 GMT

I and my family on pm experienced more issues lately with voice calls not connecting under near perfect cell signal conditions on several phones and accounts. I mean conditions where you have line of sight to the tower, -100 dbm LTE band 2/4 and around -70dbm on 3G when or if the phone drops down to it for a voice call. Something has to be going on with the network or with prioritization. It has never been this bad

Re: Cannot establish voice calls, recurrent issue

darlicious — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 22:54:28 GMT

@jor123

Force your phones to use 3G only. There are tower upgrades going on as telus/bell switch equipment from Huawei to Ericsson, Samsung etc.... which is causing issues for pm customers as their phones switch from 4G LTE to 3G for voice calls. This shouldn't last more than a week to 10 days in your local area. Periodically switch back to 4G LTE/3G/2G autoconnect to see if the issue has resolved itself.