Intermittent Mobile Connectivity

[pak86e]

Over the past few days, my Samsung S7 Edge has not had a stable connection to the Public Mobile network, despite having full bars.  Wifi has been working perfectly, but voice, SMS, and mobile internet have been intermittent.  Pulling the SIM and re-inserting resolves the issue temporarily.  Factory resets have done nothing to resolve the issue.

Any suggestions?

Edited to add:

-"SIM Card Not Inserted" message appears only when I pull the SIM card.

-I don't have another carrier unlocked phone I could try.

When I go to Settings-->About Device-->Status-->SIM Card Status

Working State:

Network: Public Mobile

Signal Strength: varies (-101 dBm 6 asu, -85 dBm 14 asu)

Mobile Network Type: varies (HSPA+, HSUPA, LTE)

Service State: In Service

Roaming:  Not Roaming

Mobile Network State: Connected

My Phone Number:  [my phone number]

In checking these settings, I noticed that the IP address also changes periodically.

Non-Working State:

Network: Unknown

Signal Strength: -113 dBm 0 asu

Mobile Network Type: UMTS

Service State: Out of Service

Roaming:  Not Roaming

Mobile Network State: Disonnected

My Phone Number:  [my phone number]

[Limestone]

Thanks for the info ! Turned off LTE in my Iphone settings and works like a charm now on 3G 😉

No longer intermittent service . ( I am located on the very edge of coverage map ...one mile north of USA border in Ontario )

[sheytoon]

@srlawren, not so helpful this time I'm afraid. I didn't see any performance degradation at the Brantford site, but we are suspecting the repeater/enhancer may be faulty.

[Lochness88]

My Nanna had the same issue try factory resetting the phone that worked for her.

[srlawren]

@sheytoon super helpful, as always!  Would love to hear what you find out 🙂

[sheytoon]

@stonechucker, can you private message me the address where this is happening? I'll see if I can find out what's happening. More details would be helpful too... which services are affected (voice, data, SMS), which band, which technology (UMTS or LTE), date that you noticed degradation, etc.

[stonechucker]

@sheytoon, I’m sure it’s unrelated, but I’ve been experiencing the same symptoms over the previous 2 weeks at work in the Brantford area of Ontario, however, we had w8nd storms immediately prior to the intermittent signals at my workplace.

also note we have a signal booster/repeater mounted on our roof, but as is usually the case, no one has looked at it yet.

I’m not in the workplace this week, so I don’t know the current status.

its affecting both Telus and Bell devices, Rogers and Freedom seem to be ok, c9mpared to the rest of us.

[sheytoon]

@pak86e, where are you? Anyone else on Bell/Telus brands experiencing similar issues?

[koimr1]

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@pak86e wrote:

When I go to Settings-->About Device-->Status-->SIM Card Status

Working State:

Network: Public Mobile

Signal Strength: varies (-101 dBm 6 asu, -85 dBm 14 asu)

Mobile Network Type: varies (HSPA+, HSUPA, LTE)

Service State: In Service

Roaming:  Not Roaming

Mobile Network State: Connected

My Phone Number:  [my phone number]

In checking these settings, I noticed that the IP address also changes periodically.

Non-Working State:

Network: Unknown

Signal Strength: -113 dBm 0 asu

Mobile Network Type: UMTS

Service State: Out of Service

Roaming:  Not Roaming

Mobile Network State: Disonnected

My Phone Number:  [my phone number]

---

Thanks for posting that!

Although there's things like the phone make/model and network type to take into account generally -113 dBm 0 asu is considered extremely poor and I'd guess your problem is "simply" that you have a very poor connection at your location.

Seeing as this is a rather recent and sudden developement I'd suggest contacting the mods.

I've done so myself in the past about a poor signal and they did get back to tell me that there was some maintenance being done in my area - send 'em a private message by clicking here and providing your email address, phone number and reference this thread and they can look into that for you.

Is there absolutely no one you know who's on Telus or Bell or one of their flankers that could at least come visit you and see if they get the same result and do the SIM swap thing? That's really all I can suggest if your area checks out ok.

You can try buying and activating a new PM SIM and perhaps that's the cause - I've heard of it but personally I've never actually had a SIM go bad. Of course, just because it's never happened to me doesn't mean it never happens. 🙂

[pak86e]

The problem is not limited to data.  It affects SMS and voice as well.

Do you have any advice on how to narrow down what hardware/software could be causing the issue?

[will13am]

If the condition is spurious, my first suspicion is bad software or hardware on the phone.  The next would be heavily congested tower due to network issues locally.  Full bars indicate good coverage but is not necessarily an assurance of good data performance.  This is my general experience at work.  The LTE tower signal strength is not the best.  When connecting to a 3G tower which offers good signal strength, data performance suffers.  The 3G tower is heavily congested by phone calls which have priority over data.  Of course 3G data infrastructure is not as efficient as LTE. 

[pak86e]

LTE has worked perfectly fine for over a year now.  Moreover, I am paying for LTE service.

[Luddite]

Whenever I see issues like this I set my phone network to 3G and not LTE/Auto. 3G has been more stable where I live.

[pak86e]

When I go to Settings-->About Device-->Status-->SIM Card Status

Working State:

Network: Public Mobile

Signal Strength: varies (-101 dBm 6 asu, -85 dBm 14 asu)

Mobile Network Type: varies (HSPA+, HSUPA, LTE)

Service State: In Service

Roaming:  Not Roaming

Mobile Network State: Connected

My Phone Number:  [my phone number]

In checking these settings, I noticed that the IP address also changes periodically.

Non-Working State:

Network: Unknown

Signal Strength: -113 dBm 0 asu

Mobile Network Type: UMTS

Service State: Out of Service

Roaming:  Not Roaming

Mobile Network State: Disonnected

My Phone Number:  [my phone number]

[pak86e]

"SIM Card Not Inserted" message appears only when I pull the SIM card.

I'm currently connected and have taken a few screen shots of the settings you mentioned.  If/when the signal drops, I'll check again to compare.

[koimr1]

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@pak86e wrote:

Pulling the SIM and re-inserting resolves the issue temporarily.

My first thought would be either something with the SIM or the phone's SIM slot is dirty/loose but I'd think you'd be getting a "SIM Card Not Inserted" message when that happens.

When this happens what does it say in your phone's "About" settings as compared to when it's working fine? For example, does it say "Public Mobile" for the network, what's the signal strength, etc. I don't have an S7 Edge so apologies if this isn't available for you.

Ideally a different phone or someone else's SIM in yours (with both devices being unlocked, of course) would be the best test but you don't have access to another device. One thought might be to try a Koodo or Telus kiosk/store and see if they'll give it a go for you - say you're thinking of switching but not sure if your phone is ok or something similar. 🙂

[mpcdesign]

@pak86e, I did a search on Google, and maybe it's an outage as others are also complaining too about Telus. 

[pak86e]

I don't have another carrier unlocked phone I could try.

Does PM charge for replacement SIM cards?  I'd hate to shell out $10 and then have it not be the issue...

[NDesai]

It temporarily fixes when you reinsert the sim, so it could be a bad sim. If you have another phone, you can put the sim in and test.