Dropped calls

[Neil11]

Has people been noticing a significant increase in dropped calls the last week or so? After about 15min the call jus drops randomly. 

[Vic55]

I still do get the "network busy" error. For the past 3-4 months, at least. On a random "schedule" - once a couple of days or once a week. I restart phone and it works again...

[Tom22335566]

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@funpig1 wrote:

@Neil11 @Tom22335566 @omasoon @Andy72 @hTideGnow 

Update:  Today, I received a SMS text message from PM/Telus:

"Hi, it's Public Mobile. We have determined that your issue 0000000******** is linked to a known issue. You will be notified when this issue has been resolved. Thank you. Pour recevoir ce message en français, répondez FR."

I texted back, thanking them and asking them what specifically was the known issue? They replied that they will notify me when the issue is resolved.

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hmmm, so we have hope?

[funpig1]

@Neil11 @Tom22335566 @omasoon @Andy72 @hTideGnow 

Update:  Today, I received a SMS text message from PM/Telus:

"Hi, it's Public Mobile. We have determined that your issue 0000000******** is linked to a known issue. You will be notified when this issue has been resolved. Thank you. Pour recevoir ce message en français, répondez FR."

I texted back, thanking them and asking them what specifically was the known issue? They replied that they will notify me when the issue is resolved.

[omasoon]

I have been with PM for more than 5 years. Everything was ok until the last months. I started experiencing drop calls. I tried putting my network on 3G rather than LTE but doesn't help. I think PM do not invest in new infrastructures that what causes this congestion in the network.

[Tom22335566]

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@hTideGnow wrote:

HI @Neil11 

you did the right thing, submit ticket.  I guess more tickets will help

It happens to many people here.  Some thought it was related with VoLTE or related with 3G , but I think it was a problem with voice overall, does not matter which system you used to make calls

I guess no reply because PM has no fix to it yet.  

Just be patient, they will fix it soon, maybe it got fixed already as I am replying.  🙂

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Nope not fixed yet lol...just had a dropped call at 6 mins 20 secs. But I expected that since I didn't switch yet. FYI, my wife is on Fido now....$39/50 gig Canada plan, no dropped calls in 4 days (and she talks a lot on her phone)

[Andy72]

There were lots of new activations however PM lost lots customers as well due to new rewards system.

VoLTE and regular data (assuming 4G) using exact same data, however since PM now has 5G, many people use 5G for data which in theory should leave 4G less crowded to be used for VoLTE calling. adding 5G should have better impact at calling which is on 4G VoLTE (5G calls not implemented in Canada yet) but seems had opposite effect !!!!

[funpig1]

Would the increase in new activations and the number of new customers with PM over the last 2 months be the reason for increased network congestion in your area?

One thing I have not figured out is whether or not increased mobile data usage has any effect on VoLTE?  Take any 1,000 customer who was on a 1 - 5 GB plan 2 years ago, and there is a good chance that more than 50% of those people are now using a 10 - 50 GB plan and using much more bandwidth than ever. Does anybody know if this impacts VoLTE?

[Andy72]

I am with Public mobile for 7 years and making calls from exact same location. dropped calls started from almost 2 months ago, I also have -85 to -95db signal strength which should be pretty decent. That means that my location is not an issue but still get dropped calls. (yours may be related to location but not mine)

as for congested area, I know the data/connection is being shared. they design system based on peak user usage, lets say if they have 1000 users and pick usage is 200 people (on one tower), they design it around 200. but if you increase your users to 2000 and keep your system at 200 that will cause problem. If you are old enough you remember "network busy" message back in early days of mobile phones. that was when system (tower) was overloaded. now we do not get that message so system is not overloaded but something is wrong from their end that disconnects the calls. could be software/hardware issue.

[hTideGnow]

thanks @funpig1  for confirming.  I was hoping to find a trend related with provinces, but it looks like people from different provinces are all affected, BC, Ontario, Maritimes...

[funpig1]

I am only sharing what I was told by PM and Telus while others are still waiting for a response to their own ticket.  When others do get a response from their complaints, I would be interested to hear what information they receive. That's all. 

I cannot vouch for what I was told by PM or Telus. However, there may be some merit to their explanation. If you google "dropped calls" and look at forums for other providers, poor coverage and congestion are usually the common reasons for dropped calls. For my particular case, the coverage map, tower location and the signal strength reading on my phone seem corroborate the explanation provided to me by Telus for my dropped calls at my particular location. Note that I usually do not have any drop calls at other locations.

As I understand it (and I am no techie) the broadband is shared. Using your example, if the reasonable data capacity for goods calls (or high-speed internet) is for 100 people, a provider may actually sell service plans to a thousand people. The provider doesn't expect all one thousand people to make calls or use the internet at the same time. And even then, what happens is that the broadband gets shared dynamically. It is not like when the 101st caller joins the system, the 1st caller automatically gets kicked out. What happens is that the data gets shared, the data slows down, the data becomes unstable and occasionally calls will drop. Weak coverage in a particular location will exacerbate the problem. That is why I always suggest that people drive to a known strong signal location and see if the drop call problem improves for them.

Even if you stay in one spot and not move around, your signal strength may vary. I'm not referring just to the bars at the top of your phone. Go into your settings and look for the -XXX dBm signal strength reading. In my location, it can range from about -110 to -125 dBm. At -110, I usually have no problems. But at -125, I experience dropped calls and very slow mobile data speeds. I always joke that it depends on which way the wind is blowing. The likely explanation is environmental including the number of active users in the particular area.

Finally, please note that my issue is specific to my location.  It may not be the same issue for another person located in a completely different cell in another part of the country. If Telus were to add a microcell on my street, it does nothing to help a person dealing with dropped calls in a small town in Nova Scotia.

[Andy72]

All the tips and explanations they provided means nothing.

"increased congestion due to population growth was identified as causes" if TELUS has capacity of lets say 100 then why they provide service to 150 people? nowadays capacity is not an issue and towers can handle lots of customers. besides we are talking about dropped calls, even the issue was capacity our call should not drop, new calls would have problem to initiate a call. do they randomly drop ongoing call  to accommodate for another call? that does not make sense at all.

for tips none of them will do anything and they are saying it just to give you impression that they tried something. most of our phone uses VOLTE for voice, if you are on on 5G it will go to LTE to make the call, if you leave it at LTE, it is the same, if you change to 3G then uses 3G for voice call but many people tried this and reported that still have dropped calls. selecting provider also has no effect as I personally sitting and making a call and drops.  why my phone wants to change tower/provider middle of call that it may drop my call while I am not moving at all.

fact is that this is a big issue for lots of customers and they are not fixing it. bottom line is that they (PM and TELUS) don't know what is the issue or they know it and do not tell us.

[funpig1]

Outside of Vancouver, BC. I prefer not to say exactly where. In my discussions with both the PM customer agent and Telus tech support, I sent them screenshots of their own coverage maps which show my particular area does not have 5G service. We also reviewed the locations of towers.  Telus tech support advised that my area was only being served by one tower and it is more than 2.2 km away, outside of any usable 5G service. There are a few Telus microcell transceivers approximately 400 to 600 meters away.  However, these transceivers only have a range of about 200 meters.

When I am not at my home, I usually have no issues at all. I would love for Telus to install a microcell transceiver on a power pole about 100 m from my house. If you look at a Tower locator app, you can see congested areas like Richmond are dotted with microcell transceivers every couple of blocks.

[hTideGnow]

hi @funpig1 

thanks for sharing 

which city and province you are at??

[funpig1]

@Neil11 @omasoon @Colbydog 

I received several private messages from a PM customer agent and an extended telephone call from Telus tech support last Friday dealing with the issue of dropped calls and slow mobile data speeds at my home location

In my particular case, poor coverage and increased congestion due to population growth was identified as causes. 

On the coverage map, our location is in a 5G dead zone, with weak LTE signal. We have always had a weak signal for the last 30 years, but dropped calls have been on the rise.  More housing is being built and more people are moving into the area. The long term solution requires infrastructure upgrade. Telus will escalate my case further but I was advised that approval for upgrades take time and not to get my hopes up too high.

Telus tech support provided me with several tips on how to reduce (not eliminate) dropped calls. The main one is to switch the "preferred network" in the phone settings from 5G (recommended) down to LTE (or even 3G) to increase the stability of voice calls. The downside is that you have to remember to switch back to 5G if you want to take advantage of the high-speed mobile data that you are paying for, when you do have a good 5G signal.

The other tip is to turn off the "automatic select network" and manually select Public mobile. These tips will help but will not eliminate dropped calls. 

Another alternative is to use Wi-Fi calling, which would mean changing to Telus or Koodo.

Poor coverage and/or  increased congestion are the main causes of the increased drop calls.  (Think about how many thousands of people have switched over to PM over the last month to take advantage of the new activation deals and how many new activation problems that have been created at the same time). Is it any wonder that drop calls have increased. The ultimate solution is update the infrastructure in areas with Port coverage or heavy congestion. If you do a search of Telus, Roger, Fido, Freedom and "dropped calls", you will find many similar complaints. This is a common problem for many people. 

The best solution is to buy a house 50 meters from from a high powered 5G Telus tower and may be risk possible brain cancer for your kids.  I'm sure somebody is going to say that they actually do live close to a tower and still experience dropped calls.  My response would be: what is the location of the caller on the other end of the line? Which carrier are they using and how is their coverage/signal at their particular location? It takes two to tango, and maybe you are not the problem.

Good luck.

[will13am]

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@Chalupa_Batman wrote:

If you haven't heard from them yet, please send another private message directly to them. Advise them to reply within 48 hours or you will be filing a complaint with the CCTS and CRTC. Here is the direct link.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

If you haven't heard back, please come back and create a new post asking for assistance from the Oracles. There is no reason to leave a customer hanging for over a week and not reply to them.

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Hey batman, I hope you are not pinning your hopes on me to pull a rabbit out of a hat.  As far as network performance goes, I am a regular customer like anyone else.  I have been bitten by the dropped call bug this weekend.  A phone reboot seemed to have done the trick.  Trust me, I advocate for transparency for all matters affecting customers.  That is the best that I can do even though it is not much.  

[omasoon]

I have the same issue. I will submit a ticket.

[computergeek541]

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@Chalupa_Batman wrote:

If you haven't heard from them yet, please send another private message directly to them. Advise them to reply within 48 hours or you will be filing a complaint with the CCTS and CRTC. Here is the direct link.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

If you haven't heard back, please come back and create a new post asking for assistance from the Oracles. There is no reason to leave a customer hanging for over a week and not reply to them.

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The CRTC should not be contacted.  Contacting the CRTC will only result in an automated response that it's the CCTS that should be contacted for unresolved disputes.

[Chalupa_Batman]

If you haven't heard from them yet, please send another private message directly to them. Advise them to reply within 48 hours or you will be filing a complaint with the CCTS and CRTC. Here is the direct link.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

If you haven't heard back, please come back and create a new post asking for assistance from the Oracles. There is no reason to leave a customer hanging for over a week and not reply to them.

[EB0]

Many users have reported it recently. There is no announcement or solution to this problem till now, only flip phones seem to be working fine.

[hTideGnow]

HI @Neil11 

you did the right thing, submit ticket.  I guess more tickets will help

It happens to many people here.  Some thought it was related with VoLTE or related with 3G , but I think it was a problem with voice overall, does not matter which system you used to make calls

I guess no reply because PM has no fix to it yet.  

Just be patient, they will fix it soon, maybe it got fixed already as I am replying.  🙂

[Neil11]

After trying all the fixes suggested for the dropped without success I submitted a ticket over a week ago but still haven't got a response from CS. I have also sent a couple private messages with no response. And I still experiencing dropped calls. Frustrating!!!

[Nicotine]

I am having the same problem in Calgary, in fact I just wrote a post about it. I apparently live in a notoriously bad area for coverage but it hasn't been a problem the entire time I have been with PM. I thought it was my old Samsung phone but I just got a new Iphone 15. The PM engineer reached out to me and said, since I am on 3G and we are on a discount provider, we are subject to discount service.  He talked about available frequencies and how it can affect service levels. He said they are upgrading in our area and it should improve by fall but basically I have to live with the random dropped calls. I have started using Facetime at home so I won't have interupted calls but imo, I shouldn't have to do that.  Sorry this is happening to you in Ontario too!!

[Dunkman]

@Neil11 @ShannonMcC 

As for the call dropping issue, several customers have experience this problem.  It might be a Telus network issue since Koodo customers also are complaining online.  

You can try the following fixes:

Manually select the phone network to 4G/LTE instead of Auto.  

Not sure if an iPhone issues, another online user suggested the following:

From a different forum (reddit, RFD), one customer had the following fix:

For iPhone:
settings>>>cellular>>>Primary>>>network selection>>> turn off automatic network selection and reboot

If that does not work, you may want to submit at ticket for CSA help.  Sometimes CSA can refresh your account on the backend and calling works better. 

[ShannonMcC]

Yes!  It is annoying. At least 4 times a day. I am ready to switch carriers. I guess this is what you pay for a reduced rate for crap service. It is even happening with iPhone to iPhone I don’t get it!

in Kamloops BC 

[Neil11]

Relatively new with healthy battery. Happens when there is an almost full charge.

[Neil11]

I am toronto, Ontario.

[funpig1]

@Neil11 

How old is your phone (battery)? When phone battery ages, i have noticed that long calls may drop.  This can happen even with a long WhatsApp call.

[softech]

@Neil11 

which city and province?

Try to change network connection to Manual and Choose Public Mobile

and try changing your network mode to 3G

[Chalupa_Batman]

Yes. It happens often. If it continues, report it to a CS Agent who can reset your network.

To Submit a ticket, please click the following link to access the Public Mobile Chatbot:  https://widget.telus.tiia.ai/publicmobile/publicmobile.html  Type: Customer Service Agent

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: I am not a Public Mobile employee. I am a customer just like you. Please do not send me a private message with your personal information.