Calls "breaking up"

[jonathanbaylis]

I have been on Public Mobile (PM) for years and have put up with silent seconds in the middle of calls, when the person on the other end tells me they can't hear me or my call is "breaking up."  Moderators have told me to restart my iPhone; not helpful.  This happens on nearly every call I make or receive.  Do all PM customers experience this?  Do I need to change providers?  Do PM customers get full access to the Telus network?  Or are we receiving leftover bandwidth?  Can anyone help me with this?  My wife and I are both using the iPhone SE, an excellent unit IMHO.  Thanks in advance for your kind help.

[darlicious]

@Langlois 

You are well serviced by the main tower in Courtenay so it is strange if it isn't a maintenance issue. I'm curious if your neighbours who are with any of telus/bell tiers experience the same problem or it is limited to public and possibly lucky customers. If it only affects public then its specific to the 3G network. I wonder if using 3G only you would find issues with your data and texting as well.

[Nezgar]

@Langlois 

When you are asking friends to test as well, Koodo or Telus Mobility customers with their phone set to LTE disabled (aka WCDMA/HSPA only) "should" basically put them on the same 3G network for call tests.

And yes I'm also curious if you can confirm if the problem goes away when you are elsewhere in town, not at home. Maybe even over in nearby Comox.

[softech]

@Langlois  I assume you have been at home with the issue?  did you try driving around and see if other part of the town would make any difference?

[Langlois]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions nothing seems to make much difference. We are located in Courtenay BC.

Public has checked the local transmission tower and can’t see anything that would cause this problem. I think it must have something to do with transmission though. There is lots of construction going on.

I’m going to get a friend to try calling from a non Public cell and see how their connection is. 
The echo number in Ontario is helpful for checking out the service, to see if calls are clear. 
1 (226) 244-4444

[Nezgar]

@Langlois 

Switching to 3G should help at least with getting the calls, but the audio dropping out mid-call is possibly something else... Interesting if you also say it only happens at your house - this suggests a tower specific issue...

You might want to do some test calls over time with this echo test service: 226-244-4444

[sheytoon]

Sorry, you're right, it might help for @Langlois's situation.

[softech]

@sheytoon  , OP did mention "All three of my family members are having problems with voice phone calls incoming calls don’t even ring and go straight to voicemail. ", 

the the 3G only would help to at least get the calls?

[sheytoon]

@softech the complex LTE to 3G transition is only applicable for setting up a voice call. Once a call is established it makes no difference.

@jonathanbaylis @Langlois where are you guys located?

[softech]

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@geopublic wrote:

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Setting a device to manually connect to 3G will not make a difference since Public uses the 3G network exclusively for calls anyway. So even if you are using LTE for data and texts the device will automatically connect to 3G when a call comes in or when making a call.

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I have read discussion here that staying in 3G might help voice in some situation.  Basically it is about the procedure to for phones on LTE to switch to 3G for calls is complex.  Staying on 3G is  simpler as everything is handled by the 3G network.

[darlicious]

@Langlois 

It sounds like they may be doing work on the main cell tower you connect to near your home. You may get more info from telus/bell in that regard. You can always toggle airplane mode on/off to see if you can get a better connection. Have a look at the cell tower map to locate your nearest tower which may help you when looking for where telus/bell may be doing work.

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=57.751076&lng=-98.876953&zoom=3&type=Roadm...

[esjliv]

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@Langlois wrote:

All three of my family members are having problems with voice phone calls incoming calls don’t even ring and go straight to voicemail. Outgoing calls work for a minute or so and then the person we calls can’t hear us as our voice is breaking up although we can hear the other person clearly. We usually have 2 bars of service. We have tried restarting our phones switching to 3G turning off Bluetooth...text and Data are fine.

We have had good service for the past year but for the past three weeks something has changed in our service, even visitors to our home on public mobile have the same problem.

We have all submitted tickets and got a call from Tech support saying they will look into it but that was 4 days ago and since then nothing. Anyone else experiencing the same problems? As much as I have liked Public Mobile it’s looking like I need to look elsewhere for a service where I can actually make and receive phone calls.

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@Langlois well, that is disappointing. A Ticket would like be closed after 4 day without any response to or from. I would submit another ticket and see what they have to say.

Your not in Manitoba, by any chance, are you?

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Text-From-PM-About-Changes-To-Mani...

[Langlois]

All three of my family members are having problems with voice phone calls incoming calls don’t even ring and go straight to voicemail. Outgoing calls work for a minute or so and then the person we calls can’t hear us as our voice is breaking up although we can hear the other person clearly. We usually have 2 bars of service. We have tried restarting our phones switching to 3G turning off Bluetooth...text and Data are fine.

We have had good service for the past year but for the past three weeks something has changed in our service, even visitors to our home on public mobile have the same problem.

We have all submitted tickets and got a call from Tech support saying they will look into it but that was 4 days ago and since then nothing. Anyone else experiencing the same problems? As much as I have liked Public Mobile it’s looking like I need to look elsewhere for a service where I can actually make and receive phone calls.

[gpixel]

@jonathanbaylis reset your network settings

1. From the home screen navigate to Settings>General>Reset
2. Tap Reset Network Settings
If prompted enter your passcode
3. Tap Reset Network Settings
4. Restart your phone

[geopublic]

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@jonathanbaylis wrote:

I have been on Public Mobile (PM) for years and have put up with silent seconds in the middle of calls, when the person on the other end tells me they can't hear me or my call is "breaking up."  Moderators have told me to restart my iPhone; not helpful.  This happens on nearly every call I make or receive.  Do all PM customers experience this?

@jonathanbaylis  No, in fact calls have never been a problem other then the odd call but that can be caused by many variables. In your case, if it's happening on every call then you have a problem.

Do I need to change providers? 

Possibly if it's happening for years on almost every call as you say.

Do PM customers get full access to the Telus network? 

Yes, PM customers get access to the Telus/Bell 3G network for calls. PM does not support Voice over LTE (VoLTE) so the LTE network cannot be used for calls.

Or are we receiving leftover bandwidth? No.

Can anyone help me with this?  My wife and I are both using the iPhone SE, an excellent unit IMHO.  Thanks in advance for your kind help.

If you are experiencing calling issues in all areas for many years then you should seriously consider switching to Telus or any other provider that supports VoLTE. 

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[geopublic]

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@benfatto wrote:

Try setting the phone to 3G only, instead of LTE. It's more stable in many areas and gives data speeds as good as the LTE setting, because LTE is throttled to 3 mbps anyway.

Telus/Koodo/PM all use the same network and, as far as we know, no particular customers have priority on the network. If it's truly a network issue causing the problem your only recourse is Rogers; Bell and Telus share their networks.

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Setting a device to manually connect to 3G will not make a difference since Public uses the 3G network exclusively for calls anyway. So even if you are using LTE for data and texts the device will automatically connect to 3G when a call comes in or when making a call.

[Staliger]

@jonathanbaylis Is there opportunity for you to try the sim in another phone, not current Iphone? This will help to check whether or not the issue with the sim card.

[gblackma]

@jonathanbaylis is this happening to both of you? Thanks. 

[Triguy]

Check your coverage area ? 

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/coverage

Do you have another phone to try swapping the sim ?

[Nezgar · Accepted solution]

This is not a common issue. This is usually caused by a hardware issue with your phone, or poor 3G/HSPA signal in your specific area. Calls only run over the 3G/HSPA network - not LTE.

• Do both yours and your wife's phones experience similar frequency of calls breaking up?
• Are you and your wife both using the exact same model of iPhone SE? (Which model? We can check which bands it supports)
• Have you tried swapping your SIM into your wife's phone, or another phone entirely to rule out your device?
• Have you noticed calls breaking up in a similar frequency at other locations?

Here's a tower map that might give you an idea of where your closest towers are. PM uses TELUS towers in the west, BELL towers in the east, SaskTel towers in Saskatchewan, etc:

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html

[benfatto]

Try setting the phone to 3G only, instead of LTE. It's more stable in many areas and gives data speeds as good as the LTE setting, because LTE is throttled to 3 mbps anyway.

Telus/Koodo/PM all use the same network and, as far as we know, no particular customers have priority on the network. If it's truly a network issue causing the problem your only recourse is Rogers; Bell and Telus share their networks.