No ability to call - Text only

[Tanktheram]

Experienced an issue with my mothers phone tonight. She was able to text, but not call out, or recieve a call. 

Nunerous people were at our house - all on Public Mobile, anyone with a Samsung S9 or older phone could only text but not call. 

Myself with a Note20 Ultra on Public - I was able to text and call. If I put her phones SIM in my phone, I was able to text and call. If I put my known good SIM in her old device, I was able to text but had no call function. 

Once mom got home - she was able to call again. Once three other guests who had older phones got home they were able to call again!? 

Do older phones have less connectivity than others!? Unfortunately I went through all the troubleshooting steps, reset all network connections - bluetooth, wifi, grrr....   she gets home and it works. 

We all had full bars the whole time. Please explain that..... 

[Tanktheram]

Would make sense. We have a 5G tower at the end of the street which gives us 5Gers excellent service.  

All three older devices worked fine once they left the neighborhood and went closer to city center where older repeaters may still exist. 

Problem with this is that so many older folks have devices in great condition like Note 9 / S9 which suits their uses perfectly fine - they're being forced to purchase new devices to make a call... and calls should be an essential service of owning a "phone".  

Thanks for the replies

[Phil_Adelphus · Accepted solution]

@Tanktheram  Older phones that are not enabled by PM for VoLTE (Voice over LTE) need 3G to make calls.  Texting and data are not affected.  It may be that there was a temporary unavailability of 3G in the area.  Carriers are going to be shutting down 3G at some point like they already have in the USA.  Rogers is shutting theirs down this year.  Public Mobile does have a somewhat limited list of "certified" VoLTE phones.

[BKNS27]

@Tanktheram 

Interesting conclusion. It could also be related to the OS in the older phones in your area.

[Tanktheram]

Long story short - I narrowed it down to older phones being unable to connect to wirless towers in certain areas where text works, but no call. 

Shame, because we have a massive 5G tower in our culdesac blasting all the radiations!!!!!