Can text but not call in the US

[GinetteGauvin]

Device: Samsung Galaxy A21, last updated 17 February 2024
Plan: 60GB within Canada and the US Data at 5G Speed, Unlimited Canada-US wide minutes and messaging plus unlimited international text and picture messaging++

I am currently in South Carolina for a few weeks which is why I upgraded my plan to include US data and calls. Upon arrival, my phone automatically connected to the AT&T network but I could neither call nor text but I fixed it by manually connecting to the T-Mobile network. 

Now, suddenly, without having made any changes to my settings, I can text but I cannot receive or make calls. I have attempted to connect to another network without success and so came back to T-Mobile. Roaming is on, and my phone is set to LTE/ARMC-LB/GSM. 

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why calls drop as soon I press "send". 

Help!

[Sansan]

Will it allow you to remove the ✔️? Your absolutely correct. If they offer a service it should work without us having to jump through hoops 😒

[Phil_Adelphus]

@GinetteGauvin   Is the other phone the same make and model, or something different?  By the end of 2022 all US customers were required to have an approved VoLTE phone because the 3G network was being shut down.  Some carriers even provided free VoLTE phones to their customers who had a phone not capable and approved.  Because Canada still has 3G for non-VoLTE phones you would not have a problem here, only on crossing the border.  In some areas of the US T-Mobile still has 2G which may work for a non-VoLTE phone but it too is being shut down over time and is hit and miss.  Your options if you visit the US often would seem to be to get a phone that is on PM's VoLTE list or find a carrier who does support the phone you have for US travel.  

The PM VoLTE approved list is here

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/volte 

Note that the page is out of date because it implies 3G is still available in the US whereas it was shut down by the end of 2022.

Is your phone the A21 SE model number SM-A215U1?

If VoLTE is not toggled on in your settings, try doing that.  Otherwise, if you want to take this up with Public Mobile open a ticket using the chat icon bottom right of this page.

[GinetteGauvin]

So I was able to get service by switching my SIM to another phone configured in the same manner as I had done on my original phone (connected to TMobile network) so I do not understand why my original phone just dropped voice service. 

[GinetteGauvin]

It may not be VoLTE capable, but its 4G capable, so why can PM not provide for the voice service I need when abroad? We're paying $40 a month for a service we cannot receive unless we perform a mass reconfiguration of our phone? Frustrating to say the least.

[GinetteGauvin]

Not sure what happened, but I didn't mean to mark this as the solution. I tried this but it didn't work either. Thanks for tghe suggestion though.

[Phil_Adelphus]

@GinetteGauvin   Your phone is not on PM's VoLTE list so your only option for voice calls would likely be to make the phone connect to T-Mobile on 2G, which is spotty.  You tried that as suggested by @Sansan and it still didn't work?   Data should be working though so you could download something like Fongo or TextNow and make calls that way, different phone number though.

[GinetteGauvin]

Willing to try anything. I did what you suggested and no change unfortunately,. 

[Sansan · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately,  this US feature can easily a hit or miss from posts that I've seen.

Remove the automatic connection. 

put your phone to 4G/LTE and connect to T-Mobile or AT&T  manually.

If calls still don't work, put your phone to 2G and connect to T-Mobile. 

[Chalupa_Batman]

I know this sounds dumb but...  go into settings, pick T-Mobile again and reboot. THEN...  with me a few weeks ago in the US...  it stayed on T-Mobile.