Lots of calls failing on Spark with new Samsung Galaxy S21FE

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Lots of calls failing on Spark with new Samsung Galaxy S21FE

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johno1234

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#2992212 5-Nov-2022 15:03

skyplonk: I have mentioned on a couple of other threads here that we had this exact issue with Spark and S21FE (and a couple of other phones) for a year. Happy spark customers for many years. All was good until late 2021 for us.

It was looked at by a range of spark staff including members who also are active on Geekzone. But ultimately was never resolved and after nearly a year ported to Vodafone (it was affecting the ability to do my job), without anymore issues.

I had constant dropped calls and/or calls with broken audio or calls that would just fail to setup or incoming calls that would go directly to voicemail.

It was not everywhere which was odd. Spark took call traces and could see packet loss on the uplink and an issue with a tower(s?) In our area.

I had to disable VoLTE but that option was taken away with a software update. I found using the app "Samsung band selection" from the app store I could turn it off via a hidden menu. That was all well and good until I was in a RCG/LTE only area.

The same phone on vodafone was ok and all you did was change sim?

boosacnoodle

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#2992294 5-Nov-2022 20:07

skyplonk: I have mentioned on a couple of other threads here that we had this exact issue with Spark and S21FE (and a couple of other phones) for a year. [..] It was looked at by a range of spark staff including members who also are active on Geekzone. [..] I had constant dropped calls and/or calls with broken audio or calls that would just fail to setup or incoming calls that would go directly to voicemail.

It was not everywhere which was odd. Spark took call traces and could see packet loss on the uplink and an issue with a tower(s?) In our area.

Several years ago my workplace had 300+ Spark connections, predominantly with iPhone’s. When you were specifically in Christchurch & on an iPhone & on Spark & with Call Waiting enabled, when you would receive a second call while on an existing call, your existing call would drop. This presented like bad reception but in actuality was a network level fault specific to iPhones in Christchurch.

You can imagine that troubleshooting this was an absolute nightmare, especially as it just pertained to one area and brand of phone and carrier. Fortunately given the number of connections and after several months investigating we did eventually manage to narrow it down. It turned out that it was oddly similar to your issue: there was something specific to the Christchurch towers that Spark had to change to resolve the issue. This took about a month, from memory, then it was solved - never happened again.

My point is unless you have several hundred connections for what is a relatively bizarre & presumably uncommon issue like this you’re unlikely to get it sorted, unfortunately. The Helpdesk script doesn’t provide for such scenarios.

skyplonk

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#2992373 5-Nov-2022 23:29

johno1234:
skyplonk: I have mentioned on a couple of other threads here that we had this exact issue with Spark and S21FE (and a couple of other phones) for a year. Happy spark customers for many years. All was good until late 2021 for us.

It was looked at by a range of spark staff including members who also are active on Geekzone. But ultimately was never resolved and after nearly a year ported to Vodafone (it was affecting the ability to do my job), without anymore issues.

I had constant dropped calls and/or calls with broken audio or calls that would just fail to setup or incoming calls that would go directly to voicemail.

It was not everywhere which was odd. Spark took call traces and could see packet loss on the uplink and an issue with a tower(s?) In our area.

I had to disable VoLTE but that option was taken away with a software update. I found using the app "Samsung band selection" from the app store I could turn it off via a hidden menu. That was all well and good until I was in a RCG/LTE only area.

The same phone on vodafone was ok and all you did was change sim?

Yup. Ported over and the problems did not follow. Same phone, different Sim/provider, no problem

johno1234

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#2993413 8-Nov-2022 10:42

Spark want to replace the SIM, and if that doesn't work, replace the handset itself.

Linux

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#2993415 8-Nov-2022 10:46

@johno1234 Zero chance it is related to the SIM

johno1234

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#2993425 8-Nov-2022 11:10

Linux: @johno1234 Zero chance it is related to the SIM

I agree... but I think I am going to have to humour them.

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johno1234

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#2993426 8-Nov-2022 11:11

BTW this variant has no settings menu that I can find to turn off either VoLTE or Wifi calling. All I can see is band selection. Cutting it down to 3G only hasn't made the problem go away.

EdBNZ84

2 posts

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#3020003 11-Jan-2023 12:56

Hi Johno1234, do you have an update, all working OK now?

I have the same problem, gave up using the new phone, S21FE, too many dropped calls at work, went back to my old phone, S8, with VoLTE turned off.

So the S21FE got send back to Samsung for checking, nothing wrong found, so now back with me.

I don't want to go and swap back to the new phone if things are still the same.

Very disappointed with Samsung and Spark, I'm obviously not the only one with this issue..

VoLTE is causing the problem, and it cannot be turned off in the latest software update as others have said.

What is the solution?

Your thoughts much appreciated.

skyplonk

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#3020066 11-Jan-2023 14:19

VoLTE can be turned off. The option was removed/hidden in a recent update but download "Samsung Band Selection" from the playstore and you can find the setting and turn it off. I mentioned this earlier in the thread.

I just tested it, still works on android 13 update.

EdBNZ84

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3020406 12-Jan-2023 12:03

Hi sky.plonk,

Thank you for that, much appreciated.

Yes, this is working for me too now.

Cheers

johno1234

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#3020422 12-Jan-2023 12:32

EdBNZ84:

Hi Johno1234, do you have an update, all working OK now?

I have the same problem, gave up using the new phone, S21FE, too many dropped calls at work, went back to my old phone, S8, with VoLTE turned off.

So the S21FE got send back to Samsung for checking, nothing wrong found, so now back with me.

I don't want to go and swap back to the new phone if things are still the same.

Very disappointed with Samsung and Spark, I'm obviously not the only one with this issue..

VoLTE is causing the problem, and it cannot be turned off in the latest software update as others have said.

What is the solution?

Your thoughts much appreciated.

We moved that phone number from Spark to Vodafone - and the problem vanished. It seems that Spark 4G is poor at our Auckland address. My iPhone seems to cope with it but the S21FE didn't.

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