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Phone not receiving all calls

The_Stig
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

So, this issue has been going on for a while now. We have good coverage where we are (or, at least decent coverage). But I'm missing a lot of calls. Probably half or more of the time it goes straight to voicemail without even a notification or any record someone has called. 

 

Now, you're probably thinking what I thought - it's gotta be the phone. But it isn't. We have tried with 5 different phones over the last 2.5 years. It doesn't matter if I'm in town or out in the woods, it just does that. Texting is fine, VoIP services work fine. 

 

I need my phone for my customers. I have my number plastered on cards and the side of my vehicle, so I can't change numbers. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!!

 

Oh, and I should mention my wife has the same problem, but she never uses her phone for talking anyway

13 REPLIES 13

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@The_Stig 

Not all cell towers in your area will carry all of the spectrum frequencies that your phone is compatible with..... a couple are meant for indoor use but high volume and mostly for data use or only the 4G LTE network.  Others caryr the full spectrum that bell/telus uses so that they provide a good network connection to a larger area both near or far, indoors or out and can handle a large volume of network traffic.

 

Unlike telus and koodo or bell and virgin public mobile (and lucky) does not have voLTE calling. They use the 3G network only for voice calls. When your phone is set to 4G LTE/3G/2G (autoconnect) it stays on (defaults) to the 4G LTE network which is the the signal strength (icon bars) that you see at the top corner of your phone screen. When you are in an area that has good coverage of both the 4G LTE and 3G networks and you receive (or make) a voice call your phone (and the icon)will automatically switch to the 3G network for the duration of the call.

 

If you are in an area that has poor 3G network coverage and therefore a weaker signal (ie.one icon bar) you can see on your phone screen the icon change to the 3G network as you initiate the voice call  and signal strength change from good for 4G LTE (3/4 bars) to weak and you may notice it takes a few seconds for your phone to connect to the 3G network to make the call but it will connect eventually. If the signal is really poor you may have poor call quality or have a dropped call. If you have no signal or 3G network coverage your call will not connect at all.

 

In reverse when you have an incoming call in these areas the autoconnect setting on your phone has its own preset "timer" to detect the incoming "3G" call signal and switch from 4G LTE to 3G and connect the call. If that 2 seconds (in reality in can be milliseconds) once that preset time is reached your phone/network defaults** to send the call to voice mail. If your phone is set to 3G only (or you initiate the call) the preset timer for the phone is essentially eliminated but it will try for 5 or 10 seconds to connect before it fails. You either have enough of a signal to connect to the 3G network and make/take the call or not. If the incoming call cannot connect it will default to voicemail.

 

Edit:

**This is where you can control where you want the incoming call not connecting to go to vs all of your options for conditional and unconditional call forwarding defaulting to voicemail. You would want unreachable for example to go to your voip phone # whereas you would want busy/declined to still go to voicemail because you are already on a voice call. (This is where @Nezgar would lend their expertise on how each option in call forwarding would work best in your situation.)

 

Switching to 3G only you will be able to test as you go about your day and travel around your 3G signal strength by glancing at your phone to see your icon bar strength but when it's one bar or less try to then look at the signal strength reading in your settings as well to see if it's poor, very poor or non existent. If it's poor or very poor try calling your wife to say "I love you." to see if your phone will connect, connect eventually ( how long will try to connect...5 sec, 10 sec?) or fail?

 

If it eventually connects ask your wife to call you back to see how long it takes to connect or if it fails and defaults to voicemail. This will help you determine where and how much 3G coverage you have and whether or not staying on 3G only will resolve most (50%, 75% or 90+%?) of the missed incoming calling defaulting to voicemail or if testing out and using a voip provider with your call forwarding options is needed.

 

When testing in 3G only it won't take you long to determine if you have a pretty good coverage with a couple of dead zones or poor areas or if you generally poor coverage with very poor signal strength or and lots of dead zones. If you start to realize immediately coverage is poor switch to testing the voip provider work around. It's less labour intensive because you remain on the autoconnect setting and your incoming calling either comes into your pm number or your voip number. If most calls go to your voip provider phone # then thats your best option all the time or you may find that 3G only works great most of the time but you need to use the workaround in a certain geographical area only.

 

Edit

(ie. Everything south of Hwy 1 as you head towards Indian Point until you enter Champlain Heights is a dead zone so those parishes have no 3G coverage so switching back to autoconnect so your call forwarding to your voip # will kick in while you are in that area). Even if you forget to switch back after traveling out of that area again you still won't miss calls.)   

 

 

 

 

 

To contact customer support click below:

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

To pre-verify your account include in your private messaging only your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

The_Stig
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thank you so much! I'll keep this updated on whether it works or not. It may take a few days to find out though


@The_Stig wrote:

My mobile data does work well! I guess that's why it's so puzzling. 

 

So, I went to settings>connections>mobile networks>network mode>WCDMA only. Is that correct for switching to 3G? 


Yes, some phone calls it WCDMA ONLY, same as 3G Only

The_Stig
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

My mobile data does work well! I guess that's why it's so puzzling. 

 

So, I went to settings>connections>mobile networks>network mode>WCDMA only. Is that correct for switching to 3G? I'd like to try that before I go the VoIP route. I have enough data, 5GB, and my calls from customers are usually less than 3 minutes. But I sorta want to do one thing at a time to see if that's the issue, if that makes sense

The_Stig
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I haven't been up at my parents often enough to know. I have to KNOW people are trying to call me, otherwise it won't even show up.

 

As for better reception elsewhere, I don't know. I've had trouble connecting before, but I don't make a lot of outgoing calls at work unless it is to my wife......who is at home....

 

Maybe something I should keep an eye on

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@The_Stig 

Even my 4G LTE measured signal strength is poor hovering between -100dBm and -109dBm and I am right in the middle of Vancouver unencumbered by topographical or structures and no issues with mobile data. When I switch to the 3G network the signal strength is an optimal -67dBm. I never have issues with my voice calls.

 

Your mobile data works fine? So despite the poor reading like mine it suffices. Your concern is keeping a strong enough connection to the 3G network to allow the call to connect rather than default to voicemail. So the issue or rather solution lies in your device. If staying on 3G only so you maintain a consistent connection to the 3G network it would minimize the amount of calls that default to voicemail for a delay when switching networks. Any calls going to voicemail would be due to the phone being unreachable....because it has lost its connection to the 3G network.

 

If you still experience a high volume of calls going to voicemail then employ a workaround commonly used by pm customers who live in usually more remote or rural areas not served by the 3G network but they work in an area that does have 3G network coverage. Download a voip provider app like textnow or fongo.

 

When you are in an area of confirmed 3G coverage (You have decent 3G coverage but topography appears to greatly impede your signal depending on your location....your parents are using voLTE for voice calls so your 4G LTE signal strength is serviceable.) call forward your conditional option busy/unreachable to your voip provider phone #. Then you answer those calls that would normally default to your pm voicemail on your phone's voip app while on wifi or it will use your 4G LTE data mobile network. The calls will use about 0.5mb/min out of your plan data when not connected to WiFi. 

 

Unless you lose all mobile network connectivity this should solve the vast majority of calls you have been missing. You will have to remember to check both of your voicemails ( pm and the voip app)  for any missed calls but they should be greatly minimized going forward.

 

 

 

 

 

To contact customer support click below:

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

To pre-verify your account include in your private messaging only your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

@The_Stig   the phone number would not be the reason.   If you tried different phone and it is the same, then it is not the phone.

 

One question, when you make outgoing calls at home, does it take longer to connect at home then when you are in a different area?

 

Also, when you are at your parent's home, do you get better reception as in incoming calls will come without issue?

 

You might want to consider the help of forwarding and VoIP app.  Get a VoIP app like TextNow, then set Forwarding when Not Reachable to the VoIP number.  Then in such case that the  voicecalls cannot get to you, it will then forward to the VoIP (which uses Wifi or Data), and the VoIP app will ring and you won't miss the calls

The_Stig
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

It's probably been for 2 years or a bit more. My parents live right beside me (literally, a stone's throw....about 80meters). They're with Koodo and were with Bell with no issues. They'll tell me a lot of times they were trying to call. I just can't see it being a coverage issue because pretty well everyone around me (I know all my neighbors) has no problems when I ask. But if it's not a coverage issue, then I have no idea what else it could be.

 

The ONLY thing that that might make my situation  different is that I switched my phone number when we moved here in 2019. I started with PM in early 2019 and moved from Nova Scotia to here in late 2019. It's been a problem ever since, but I can't imagine that being an issue

@softech  OP is in New Brunswick

🙂

softech
Oracle
Oracle

@The_Stig   any chance  you are in Manitoba , Winnipeg and Brandon  area? That is a special area that PM has poor 3G coverage for voice.

esjliv
Mayor / Maire

@The_Stig  -

Here is a link for a coverage map.https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/coverage

 

Canadian Cell Towers: http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html

There are no Telus towers near your city according to the above link, but note that Public Mobile/Telus uses Bell towers, see details about this in the below post:

 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Network-sharing-explained/td-p/129092

 

esjliv_0-1650511063214.png

 

You said this has been going on for a while, how much of a while?

Your community start date is in 2019.

Are these service changes happening just this year maybe? If so, I wonder if they are doing upgrades to towers or services in your area.

 

It is possible some surrounding areas of the city/town may get dead zones for any provider.

 

Do you know of other people with other providers, such as Rogers, that are having the same issues?

 

The_Stig
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

It seems to be hovering in the 90s mostly. My problem is that it does it all time, even when I'm out and about. Including in town. I'll try switching to 3G to see if that helps. Also, when I was watching it there were quick little spikes to -125ish.

Screenshot_20220420-143830_Settings.jpg

 

And for reference, I am in Oak Bay, New Brunswick

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@The_Stig 

Where are you located? Your phone will show your signal strength of the 4G LTE network. Voice calls are on the 3G network. Try switching to 3G only and see if this solves the issue. You can also then go to your Settings>>About phone>>SIM card status>>If you have a reading of -99dBm or below then your signal strength is poor. Ideally you want it between -60dBm and -90dBm.

 

By giving us your location and signal strength for the 3G network we can offer some suggestions and/or solutions to your issue. Toggling airplane mode on/off on occasion will refresh your network connection if your connection is poor and may help you keep a better connection so you have less calls defaulting to voicemail.

 

 

 

 

To contact customer support click below:

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

To pre-verify your account include in your private messaging only your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

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