Solution to the dropped calls issue

[smurfit]

More of a workaround really. The quick and dirty solution is to just put your SIM into an older phone that is not VOLTE capable. I have tried this with an old flip phone and older Android phone. Neither of them are VOLTE capable and forced to 3G mode only. They work fine. If I go back to a newer device that is in the Telus VOLTE database but not on PM's whitelist, I  get dropped calls at regular annoying intervals.

Hopefully they get this fixed someday, but in the meantime, dig out your old flip phones. As long as they support 3G HSPA they should work..

[TopShape]

Public Mobile should be giving everyone some kind of credit for this annoying dropped call situation.  It has happened to me very often and my girlfriend whom I’ve convinced to join PM from her previous cellphone provider.

Clients may start thinking of switching unless there is some form of compensation for our issues!

[Phil_Adelphus]

@funpig1  What type of phone do you have? 

Currently iPhone 13 and no VoLTE toggle but testing a while back showed it is enabled and working.  I should test again to make sure it still gets VoLTE.  Most iPhones on PM don't have a VoLTE toggle but there seem to be exceptions.  Pixel 7 should be enabled for VoLTE as long as it is TD1A.220804.009.A2 or above but there's not necessarily going to be a toggle.  The Android I had before had a toggle when on Rogers even though it didn't work, the toggle disappeared from the settings when I switched to PM.

Edited to add, I just called a family member's phone to test (wifi off, data on) and the call did not drop to 3G from LTE so VoLTE is still working. 

[funpig1]

What type of phone do you have? 

I have a Pixel 7A and there is no VoLTE toggle in my settings. I think VoLTE is automatically enabled and I would need to contact PM to turn this feature off.

[eddieO]

Update on my testing after changing the Network Selection to "Public Mobile" from Automatic:

Yesterday I had a 40+ minute call with no drops, I'm feeling really good about this solution.
Today I had a 30+ minute call and then I heard the 3 beeps and the call dropped. I had to call the person back and at around the 9 - 10 minute mark 3 beeps again and a call dropped. All 3 calls were at home and I'm showing 2 bars. Going to reach out to CS_agent so that maybe they get more bodies on the problem 🙂

On a positive note, the first caller I was speaking with yesterday said the call quality was crystal clear.

[Phil_Adelphus]

@smurfit  Other providers allow this feature to be toggled in the settings of the phone

Funnily enough I was just reading about that, it was said that Freedom and Bell no longer have a VoLTE toggle, it's automatically enabled.  Of course I read that on the internet so it must be true lol!  I know when my previous provider dropped my phone from having VoLTE I still had the toggle but it didn't work even though VoLTE was toggled on.

[smurfit]

It sure would be helpful if PM could just give us the ability to toggle off VOLTE on our account ourselves instead of having to contact customer service. I'm still waiting since submitting a ticket yesterday to request that VOLTE be disabled. Other providers allow this feature to be toggled in the settings of the phone, but Telus has decided to retain full control of this setting. My dropped calls issue started a few months ago and I suspect it has something to do with VOLTE support being enabled on my account. I never received any confirmation of this, but was told recently by a Telus tech that it is enabled. The dropped call issue ever 9min or so only goes away when I use a phone that is not VOLTE capable. So just give us the ability to turn this feature off and let's end this nightmare please!

[funpig1]

After 23 days, I got a response from an agent. During the messaging, I brought up the issue of dropped calls again. All they did was refresh the network which did nothing to improve the phone signal. 

I forwarded them a copy of the tower locator map which showed that my house is some distance between two transceivers and that both the Telus map and the PM shows that there's no 5G in our area. I made a request for  Telus/PM to install a transceiver closer to my neighborhood. They said they would escalate the request, but told me not to get my hopes up.

[Phil_Adelphus]

@eddieO   I can get 5G outside the house and I get 5G+ in some areas around, just LTE while indoors but the speed when I tested this afternoon was still good at 148Mbps on LTE about half an hour after the dropped calls.  I was thinking more in terms of local carrier towers since Telus and Bell share.  You may already be familiar with this map but if not you can see which carrier towers are in your area here:

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=52.025459&lng=-96.987305&zoom=4&type=Roadm... 

[Tom222333444555 · Accepted solution]

That's too much effort Smurf. Its time to switch

[eddieO]

@Phil_Adelphus, I hadn't check the TELUS tower coverage until just now when you asked me so I used this link as a reference: https://www.telus.com/en/mobility/network/coverage-map

Based on this map I should be having 5G+ coverage at home even though I have experienced 3 dropped calls within 2 days using my iPhone 13. In the area (stretch of country road) that I had experienced no bars and data loss, the map shows that there should be 5G but yet prior to changing the Network Selection from Automatic I witnessed the signal drop down to 4G then 3G and then nothing for a few minutes in that area. I will test the calling soon but of course it should be done a hand full of times as it's not always consistent. 

[Phil_Adelphus]

@eddieO   Have you ever checked the towers in that area?  A thought just occurred to me that there are no Telus towers in my area so PM must be running off Bell, which has several.  

[eddieO]

Hey @Phil_Adelphus, I found that suggestion on a Reddit forum and made the change on my iPhone. While I haven't found someone to talk to for 10 minutes or more 🙂 I had noticed before the change that on a certain back road (country road) my SiriusXM which streams from the app would freeze for 3 to 4 minutes with no bars showing and this happened on 2 different days in the same area. After the change I drove the same route today and it held the signal the whole way through so I'm very hopeful that the calling will be fixed as well

[smurfit]

Hi. I tried that as well. Didn't make any difference. This problem seems to be connected somehow to the IMEI of the phone. Even if you manually select 3G and manually select the network, it still happens. The fact that it is also happening for users when using LTE on actual VOLTE calls means there is a serious flaw in the backend VOLTE network. The only solution that has worked so far for myself is to use non-volte capable phones. I am now contacting CS to hopefully have VOLTE completely disabled on my account. I never asked for it and I certainly don't want it if it is not reliable.

[BKNS27]

@smurfit 

This solution will work for about 6 more month as 3G will be decommissioned in 2025.

I can see a lot of people with older phones will be shopping for a new phone.

[smurfit]

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to matter for me, but you can give it a try.

[Phil_Adelphus]

@funpig1   My iPhone is on 5G auto and was on LTE at the time of the call, it always is inside the house.  I wish I had been able to see if it dropped to 3G at the time of the disconnect, which would further imply a VoLTE issue I would think.

[funpig1]

I have done the same thing and also deselected 5G (recommended) and selected LTE. Still too early to tell because drop calls at my house can be very random.

[Phil_Adelphus]

@smurfit   I received a phone call this afternoon which, unusually for me, was more than a few minutes long.  It dropped twice at about the same interval of 8-9 minutes with a triple beep.  It was an important call and the caller had to call me back twice because of this.  My phone is VoLTE enabled and on PM's whitelist.  I read on another forum this afternoon that someone found changing network selection from automatic to manual and then selecting Public Mobile seemed to be working for them.  So I'm trying that.

[funpig1]

@smurfit @fixin1 

Would selecting 3G on your new smartphone also work the same way? The signal strength seems to be better with 3G but not sure if the real world call quality and drop call situation is improved.  And of course, the data speeds drops off dramatically.

[smurfit]

That's my theory. I don't have any iphones to test, but I have had success with an old Samsung flip phone and Samsung S5.

[fixin1]

@smurfit - So if someone digs out their iPhone 5, 5s and 5C it is not VoLTE at all (Data only) therefore it is good.

Nice to hear you found a workaround. Maybe PM has been experimenting on the idea of opening up VoLTE to all devices.