Call quality

[gmd]

I have recently noticed that the call quality isn't as good as it used to be. It does seem to be specific to a provider, as if affects calls with everything from normal line to VoIP lines to cellphone lines; but not all.

This has been noticed with a OnePlus 3.

Time to test and compare with a second SIM from another provider in SIM2...

[gmd]

Things got bad again lately, with at least two out of our three phones having this issue (my oldest doesn't use his phone to talk much).

EDIT: I did try the second SIM (TELUS) and it doesn't seem to have this issue.

[gmd]

I haven't had a chance to try the second SIM. I have however noticed that call quality on my PM SIM to be good these last few days.

[Korth]

There are usually software settings which can "improve voice quality", "reduce background noise", etc.  On my old Android device there's a slider for "T-Coil Modulation" which I find wonderful for improving voice clarity (even though I don't use hearing aids and this setting is intended to somehow fix issues caused by some hearing aid technologies, lol).

On the opposite end, digital speech encoding is quite awful when there's too much background noise outside normal "voice" frequencies.  Traffic or whirring computer fans or footsteps in the rain or the wiggly wheel on your shopping buggy are easily ignored sounds for people but are amplified and distorted into wild roaring screeching cacophony across smartphones.  Good software attempts to automatically compensate and filter such noise, but even the "smartest" software can't outperform a manually-controlled user setting.

Finally, most smartphones these days have only the most basic (smallest and cheapest possible) speaker and mic hardware, they basically assume (and basically require) the use of an external headset.  Phones which pack awesome music-playing software (as a major selling point to attract music lovers, not as just a bunch of supported audio formats) are often equipped with better speakers - though not always.

[MoreYummy]

The call quality seems to be good most of the time.  when tried it on different phone it is little different, they phone quality plays some rolls in the whole process.   It is very rare to get drop call, but it happens.

[srlawren]

Great discussion, and I like your last post @Korth.

My small two cents from a user-experience point of view:  I used a OnePlus 3 on Public Mobile from June 21st 2016 though Nov 22, 2017 and was mostly happy with the voice call quality.  However, everything being relative, when I replaced it Nov 22 with a OnePlus 5T, I seem to find the inbound audio clearer and more life-like.  It's not night and day, and I have nothing other than my subjective impressions--and it's been shown that auditory memory is unreliable.  Also it could be expectation bias--I might have been *expecting* my new phone to have clearer audio and so thought I heard it.  But subjectively, based on my limited test set, the OP3 has relatively average but not amazing inbound call quality, whereas the 5T sounds better to my ears.  

[koimr1]

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@gmdwrote:

Two questions :

1. Why is VOIP voice call quality taking over this thread?

2. Why are people giving thumbs up to a side discussion?

Thanks to all those who have given their two cents on the PM call quality. When I get a chance, I will do some more tests with two SIMs in the OnePlus 3, as this does not happen all the time.

For the record, I have been with PM for two years and have 3 lines (another phone just spent over a day with incoming calls going straight to voicemain and no incoming SMS messages - more testing to come!).

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Previous to what you wrote above your last input to your problem was six days ago. It's not too surprising that others veer a little off-topic when that happens as we are left speculating when there's not enough information to go on.

Swapping SIMs is one of the most basic troubleshooting methods available and it sounds as though you have this available to you - please just try - I've now asked three times, there's no need for this thread to head into its second week. Let's first find out if this is a network problem or a handset issue. 🙂

[Korth]

Well then, back on topic ...

Phones always proudly advertise their most impressive specs - how pretty the screen is, how fast they run stuff, how awesome their OS version is, how many useful apps and cool features they include, etc.  Along with whatever cellular network technologies/protocols (and performances) they're compatible with.  But they rarely mention boring details like what sort of actual voice/talk call quality they provide.  And it can vary.

Even the very best-of-the-best top-tier top-price "elite" or "premium" smartphones sometimes use cheap microphones, cheap speakers, or cheap embedded hardware (usually one function on a multi-purpose SoC subprocessor) for the inglorious job of real-time sampling/amplifying/filtering/compressing/encoding/decoding lowly voice audio.  Some devices advertise "Wideband Audio" or "HD Voice" capabilities which promise to consistently meet better quality standards, but even these still frequently fall back onto lesser voice compression standards.  There's often no real way to tell what's inside and how well it works without actually doing a takeapart or simply using the device firsthand.  Especially since it's further complicated (bottlenecked) by voice-traffic volume or signal handovers across the cellular network itself, voice bandwidth can vary from over 12.2kbps to less than 4.75kbps, which directly impacts call quality and can translate into rougher audio resolution with more noise, distortion, and digital artifacts.

Looking it up, OnePlus 3 specs don't reveal this technical detail but the device has received generally positive reviews with reviewers (like this one) describing the voice quality as "above average", "good but not great", and "better than most smartphones in this price range".

[sheytoon]

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@gmdwrote:

It does seem to be specific to a provider

What do you mean by this? Which provider?

I haven't had any voice call issues.

[Luddite]

@gmd

1. Folks pitch in as they wish. Your initial post mentioned voip, so some that it was a viable point of discussion?

2. Because "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and your issue is not able to be resolved succinctly.

The results of your testing will likely provide the correct answer. Good luck.

[gmd]

Two questions :

1. Why is VOIP voice call quality taking over this thread?

2. Why are people giving thumbs up to a side discussion?

Thanks to all those who have given their two cents on the PM call quality. When I get a chance, I will do some more tests with two SIMs in the OnePlus 3, as this does not happen all the time.

For the record, I have been with PM for two years and have 3 lines (another phone just spent over a day with incoming calls going straight to voicemain and no incoming SMS messages - more testing to come!).

[Michael77]

I had no issues with the call quality when  I was with PM.  I am now with Rogers and call quality is good too. It has been a seemless change. 

[crazycolby]

last week was not ok, but right now is good, Iphone6

[Korth]

@sheytoon ... agreed, VoIP can be wildly hit or miss.  And it's probably not as bad as I suggested above.  And it's quite popular, so it must have something going for it.

My experiences with VoIP were extensive but also based on the Dark Ages when AOL CDs were still a thing.  Everybody tried VoIP - though rarely for long, lol - it was hard to resist when VoIP cost ~$4/month, phone landlines (remember landlines?) cost ~$40/month, and cellular "dumbphones" were a severely limited, very costly luxury.

Mobile electronics, digital processing, and the internet (which VoIP is built on) have all advanced considerably since then, as have many related non-technological aspects.  So it's obvious that today's VoIP (and VoLTE, etc) must be superior to yesterday's VoIP.

That being said, I still think that - just based on the way it works - packet-based VoIP is inherently less capable of sustaining realtime voice quality as multiplex-based cellular (GSM/etc).  I've heard all of the sorts of voice artifacts described above, often on (ancient) VoIP but rarely on (modern) cellular - and then only when signal is very weak, I'm in the fringe or a basement or tunnel or something, and battery charge is approaching flatline, whether it be on my end or on the other.

There's no substitute for making your own comparisons.  Identifying which device(s) and which condition(s) produce these poor voice connections so that they can be avoided or corrected when reliable clean communication has priority.

[sheytoon]

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wrote:

VoIP call quality is often poor, regardless of call quality on the other end.

...

I think the far more prevalent cause is consistently going to be the VoIP side of the connection.

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I disagree with this. There's a huge spectrum of quality with VoIP. I've had consistently excellent quality on VoLTE (which is one implementation of VoIP), as well as voip.ms.

[Korth]

VoIP call quality is often poor, regardless of call quality on the other end.

It's best to "troubleshoot" or "experiment" a little - confirm which phones have better or worse call quality than others, identify which conditions reproduce the problem.

Fringe cellular service (with weak signal and weak device battery) can produce the voice artifacts described above, but I think the far more prevalent cause is consistently going to be the VoIP side of the connection.

[koimr1]

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@gmdwrote:

@koimr1, it affects calls to and from landlines, other cellphones, voip lines. I'm in Ottawa.

Talking to my wife the other day, I couldn't tell she was driving: the sound was muffled and there was no background noise (when usually, those are noisy). Switched to a Moto Z on Telus and it was night and day.

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Thanks for responding! 🙂

PM and Telus use the exact same network so my first thought now is the phone. Try putting your PM SIM into the Moto Z and retry. Also try the Telus SIM in your OnePlus 3.

To be clear it might not actually be your phone - I just want to try and eliminate as many variables as possible.

[gmd]

@koimr1, it affects calls to and from landlines, other cellphones, voip lines. I'm in Ottawa.

Talking to my wife the other day, I couldn't tell she was driving: the sound was muffled and there was no background noise (when usually, those are noisy). Switched to a Moto Z on Telus and it was night and day.

[smp99]

7 family members all living in the Muskoka, rural and typically for many locations, only access to a single tower for a given time. Calls quality is fine.

[will13am]

I have been with this service for over a year, multiple accounts and more models of phones than I care to list.  Long story short, call quality is fine. 

[MoraMan]

Recent convert to PM and no issues. Knock on wood....

[zhadj030]

I have noticed the same. Tried with a new LG V20, Samsung S5 as well as iphone 5S.

Making local calls in Ottawa or even receiving phone calls, the quality is really bad despite being in a full coverage area 7 am in the morning of a saturday . 

Had 2 phones calls that went straight to my voicemail (just one - two bars on WCDMA) in the period of the last month at home.

No dropped calls but the voice quality and clarity has dropped a lot, it is like hearing someone trying to speak through a mask and some cuts with the voice.

Kind of glad someone else is experiencing the problem

Edit: Seemd like a temporary issue, that lasted 4 days in my case. All calls are back to normal quality now. For my case calls were made to 1-800 numbers as well as people on the Koodo numbers so voip included. I am glad that it was just a temporary issue.

[Michael77]

I never had any issues with PM's call quality. It was always good.

[Luddite]

Lots of calling on my line; no issues around Ontario or to BC.

[koimr1]

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@gmdwrote:

I have recently noticed that the call quality isn't as good as it used to be. It does seem to be specific to a provider, as if affects calls with everything from normal line to VoIP lines to cellphone lines; but not all.

This has been noticed with a OnePlus 3.

Time to test and compare with a second SIM from another provider in SIM2...

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Can you clarify "affects calls with everything from normal line to VoIP lines to cellphone lines"? I'm reading this as your recipients who are using these methods while you are using straight-up mobile/cell calling.

What is it that is lacking? Robot voice, static, voices dropping out, calls dropping entirely?

Give the second SIM thing a try and if that yields the same results.

[mtfolks]

I haven’t noticed any issues here on an iPhone SE. But I generally don’t do a lot of voice calling.