3g to 4g= bad service

[Lorn]

Hey,

I live in rural BC and travel a lot around the area. I was on 3g for a long time and had a great experience, and then recently switched to 4g, and now I have poor service, dropped calls, no service where I would normally have service and texts not being sent.

[dust2dust]

Does your phone have an LTE option like LTE/WCDMA/GSM? Public isn't using 5G so there's no point in having the phone fruitlessly trying to connect to it.

Has your phone been enabled for volte yet?

[Lorn]

How do I submit a ticket? 

[Lorn]

Sitting in the exact same place at home, I get a lousy connection when on the 5g network, and that means dropped calls and unsent texts, and when I switch to WCDMA/GSM I get full bars and no dropped connections or unsent texts.

[Korth]

The SIM card does not affect network performance in any way.

It is basically like the ignition key for a car. It works or it doesn't work. But even the "best" key cannot possibly make the car drive faster. (Contrary to a not-uncommon claim made by salespeople at cellphone stores.)

[Lorn]

I used to have the Telus Smart Hub and had a similar issue. It would often bounce between hi-band and low-band frequency, and it caused havoc. The answer was to get a new router with a feature called carrier aggregation which allowed for a more stable connection, but I doubt that is an option for a cell phone. Perhaps a new sim card? 

[computergeek541]

@Lorn 

More bars doesn't in itself mean better.  A direct comparison between number of bars between LTE and WCDMA cannot be made.  The frequencies in use are different and the tecnologies behave differently.  Having less bars could also mean that a phone is connecting to a higher frequency is available and this isn't necessarily a bad thing. For best network performance, I strongly advise against using the WCDMA/GSM setting.

[Lorn]

WCDMA/GSM has more bars as I travel around the same area. 

[will13am]

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@Lorn wrote:

I have swapped back and forth between the available options, and it does not seem to make a difference with call/ text service, but the data speeds are faster. Here are the available options:

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If network type selection does not alter calling, then perhaps the issue is caused by something other than VoLTE.  On WCDMA/GSM auto, VoLTE does not come into play even if enabled at the account level.  The idea with using this setting as a test is to try and rule in/out the effects of VoLTE.  Perhaps, you can submit a support ticket and see if the CSAs can find anything account related that could possibly be the problem.  BTW, does the signal strength change with different preferred network settings?  

[Lorn]

I will test that. 

[softech]

@Lorn yes, with option that include LTE will have a faster data, we just like you to try the WCDMA to test

Start with this, choose LTE/WCDMA/GSM (auto connect) first and see if it helps.  I know sometimes leaving the 5G option there would cause problem

If that option does not work well, try WCDMA/GSM (Auto connect) or WCDMA only (both should be the same) and test the voice again

[Lorn]

I have swapped back and forth between the available options, and it does not seem to make a difference with call/ text service, but the data speeds are faster. Here are the available options:

[softech]

@Lorn   since it is not fixed yet, you probably accepted the solution by mistake , you can go back and remove it by click "Not a solutoin"

Please try what @will13am suggested, change the Preferred network type or Network mode to 3G only or WCDMA only and see if the voice works better that way

[Lorn]

I have factory reset the phone since the changeover. I get poor service in areas where I used to get normal service. 

[Lorn]

Galaxy A32 5G recently updated Android version 13 and VoLTE is not an option. 

[softech]

@Lorn   What phone do you have?  maybe you can try to disable VoLTE on your phone's Mobile Data screen

[Haiggy]

The 3G plans still connect to the LTE network, they're just throttled in speed, so I don't imagine your experience would change at all. I wonder, have you powercycled your phone since the speed change took place? I wonder if something is caught up there.

[Korth]

technically there really isn't anything different in terms of connectivity between 3G and 4G speed plans.

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There is an important difference in areas which have unequal network deployments. If the local 3G hardware has been partially upgraded to 4G hardware then both might inferior the the old system. Until the network upgrades are complete. And all the bugs are resolved.

It's not a perfect world. The carriers are interested in profit first. Sometimes this means their deployments are not ideal from the perspective of their subscribers.

[will13am]

@Lorn , technically there really isn't anything different in terms of connectivity between 3G and 4G speed plans.  The only difference is the data speed.  The drop call problem you are experiencing might be due to glitches associated with VoLTE roll out which again is not really influenced by plan choice.  Try switching to 3G preferred network connection type during a call and see if that helps.