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Dropped calls and failed calls

B

BPresley321

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 23, 2007
147
0
Fort Worth, TX
Do you guys still get lots of dropped calls or have calls fail while ringing???

It's been happening for what seems like forever for me even when I upgraded to 3GS.
 
Might be.

I'm supposed to be in a bad coverage area, but haven't dropped a single call since I've gotten my 3GS, and they were incredibly rare before that with my 3G and my original iPhone.

Funny thing is, I dropped *more* calls with my Treo 750 on AT&T 3G, back in 2007.
 
I've had a fair share of dropped and failed calls in Northern Virginia. Certainly more than I had with Verizon, not that I'd switch back.
 
I'll never switch back. I love iPhone but do get quite frustrated by the issue and know a few close friends don't really like it either.
 
When I first got my 3G I had TONS of dropped and failed calls. Only happened when I was at my home though. Found out it was because it kept switching between networks (ie: EDGE and 3G). When I am at home I just turn 3G off and don't get any dropped calls anymore. Have the same problem with my 3GS but keeping 3G off fixes it. Hope that helps.
 
I've had maybe ~4 failed calls since I've had my iPhone.

It might have been the phone, it may have been the network conditions. I'm inclined to blame your network first, unless you get it *all the time* and other people on your network never get it.
 
BlownJetta said:
When I first got my 3G I had TONS of dropped and failed calls. Only happened when I was at my home though. Found out it was because it kept switching between networks (ie: EDGE and 3G). When I am at home I just turn 3G off and don't get any dropped calls anymore. Have the same problem with my 3GS but keeping 3G off fixes it. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...this is interesting. I'll have to give it a try.

Thanks for your help!
 
I have about 4-5 dropped calls a week.

Sometimes more.

So I've probably had about 200-250 dropped calls since I've bought the phone.

The post above about turning off 3G is true, I've found.

EDIT: That doesn't include the "failed calls" where you dial someone and it ends up giving you a "try again" button. I've probably had about 50 of those.
 
Small White Car said:
I have about 4-5 dropped calls a week.

Sometimes more.

So I've probably had about 200-250 dropped calls since I've bought the phone.

The post above about turning off 3G is true, I've found.
Click to expand...

WHAT?! :eek:

Dude ... um, how are you putting up with that? Where do you live? You live *in* Washington DC? How do other people in your area put up with that? Do Blackberries do this too?

Two hundred and fifty dropped calls? Are you being serious?
 
cellocello said:
WHAT?! :eek:

Dude ... um, how are you putting up with that? Where do you live? You live *in* Washington DC? How do other people in your area put up with that? Do Blackberries do this too?

Two hundred and fifty dropped calls? Are you being serious?
Click to expand...

I talked to an Apple genius about it. He called it 'a normal amount.' I got a new SIM card, but that didn't really help.

As I said, being on EDGE helps, which I figured out recently. So to be fair, I tend to drop 3 calls a week now. It used to be 5-6 before I figured that out. So it helps a bit. My post is more talking about "when 3G is on" which I don't always do now if I know I'm in a weak signal area.
 
Small White Car said:
I have about 4-5 dropped calls a week.

Sometimes more.

So I've probably had about 200-250 dropped calls since I've bought the phone.

The post above about turning off 3G is true, I've found.

EDIT: That doesn't include the "failed calls" where you dial someone and it ends up giving you a "try again" button. I've probably had about 50 of those.
Click to expand...

Small White Car said:
I talked to an Apple genius about it. He called it 'a normal amount.' I got a new SIM card, but that didn't really help.

I pretty much expect 1 dropped call a day, not counting weekends.
Click to expand...

I was definitely getting at least this many a while back. I live inside the city limits of Ft. Worth within a metro area of over 6 million people...def not out in the boonies or anything.
 
iphone.aggie said:
I live in the DC area, and I don't have any problems.
Click to expand...

Congratulations.
emo-cookie2.gif


Anyways, I also live in the DC area. Strangely, with the 3G I had only a few dropped calls but after a big family upgrade - we now have 2 3GS's, and 2 Nokia's. The iPhones drop calls about as frequently as Small White Car but not the other ones. It's very confusing since the old 3G and the Nokia's never did it. It happens with both of our unjailbroken iPhones so I really don't know if it can be the carrier. It happens on 3G AND Edge, even with 5 bars.
 
Yeah it's pretty ridiculous that you have to manually switch between networks just so you don't get dropped calls. But like I said it only seems to happen in certain locations where the phone keeps switching between the two.
 
I live in Northern VA and work in Northwest DC. I've never had any problems in VA, but the signal strength in DC is all over the place.

When I first got the 3G, I was dropping calls all the time at work (same 3G switch to EDGE problems). It was so frustrating because my gen 1 iPhone never dropped calls. So I turned 3G off for about a week and not once had a dropped call. The next week, I turned 3G back on and on the very same day, two back to back dropped calls.

I called AT&T, notified them of the problem, and expressed my disappointment of upgrading to the iPhone 3G but couldn't actually USE the 3G as I had to keep 3G off just to make the phone work. They credited my account $60 (additional $10/mo charge for iPhone 3G data plan vs. gen 1 iPhone data plan for six months), and I just kept it on EDGE for the next few months. AT&T also acknowledged the problem, said they were working on the issue, and that it would improve in the near future. My thoughts were: I'll believe it when I see it.

A few months later, I started turning 3G back on just to see if there had been any changes, and I noticed an improvement in signal strength. Call quality is still not all that great where I work, but I'm not dropping calls anymore (actually, I can't even remember the last time I did experience a dropped call).

So, in the year I've had the phone, first three months I had 3G off, last nine months I've had 3G on. Downtown DC, no issues at all. Same signal strength and quality as my house. YMMV.
 
I've had similar issues with call fail. I had a 2G phone (never upgraded to 3.0) that worked without problems. On the rare occasion (15-20 days) I would get a call fail.

PROBLEM:
Upgraded to a 3GS and 4 of 5 calls would fail. Incoming would go to voicemail without ringing on the iphone. Called at&t, spoke with apple tech support. They had me do everything including a full restore. Sent my call to at&t tech support, they eventually told me to go get a new sim. Worked fine in the store, on the way home, even outside my house. Got inside and same issues. AT&T authorized a new 3GS since it was 5 days old. New phone worked everywhere but inside my house.
My girlfriend's 3G (still running 2.2.1) worked fine while sitting right next to my 3GS (running 3.0). My 2nd phone is 2 weeks old and I still have this problem.

SOLUTION:
Turned of 3G and the phone works perfect.

REASON:
According to the 8th or 9th person I spoke with at tech support (both apple and at&t) and spending almost 4 hours on the phone over 3 different calls, this final at&t tech told me there is a problem with 3.0 software switching 3G to Edge. I have a weak signal/interference in my home apparently and can't get a strong 3G signal. As the 3.0 software tries to switch to Edge, it gets hung up and stays on 3G, resulting in call fail.


Anyone else hear something like this? After everything I went through, and experienced with 2 new 3GS phones, it's the only reasonable answer. I'm just outside NYC and have a "fully loaded tower 3 blocks away"
 
I've only had one dropped call with my new Iphone 3GS.

But with my Iphone 3G, I used to get them almost non-stop. I actually called Apple Care where they set me up with a brand-new Iphone 3G - shipped to my house and everything. No additional cost, I just had to send my old one back.
 
glamourkills said:
I've only had one dropped call with my new Iphone 3GS.

But with my Iphone 3G, I used to get them almost non-stop. I actually called Apple Care where they set me up with a brand-new Iphone 3G - shipped to my house and everything. No additional cost, I just had to send my old one back.
Click to expand...

Yeah.
Wait until they tell you it's damaged and charge you 199. 
 
I drop almost every call I attempt to have in my house. Today I experienced my first dropped call away from home. It's frustrating, but the phone is so good I'm gonna put up with it until At&t releases their femtocell.

At&t coverage kinda sucks in the Denver Co. area. My sister lives in D.C. and gets great reception... when she visited here last, she had terrible reception too, so it's not just my phone. I really hope they update the network here, 3g is spotty, and I only have edge in my house, 3 bars at best. It always drops to 1-2 bars once I have a call, and then the call usually drops. It kinda sucks. I might start turning off 3g and see if that improves things... I use primarily wi-fi for data, so iit won't be too big a deal.

Coming from Sprint it's frustrating, as I had great reception with them, even though everyone here knocks them like crazy. I had 4-5 bars almost everywhere. I liked the Pre while I had it, but the hardware wasn't up to par, and the iPhone is just better all around. Hopefully At&t's femtocell is released soon.
 
Dropped/Failed calls on O2 3g in UK - 32gb 3GS

Hi all

lots of people seem to be having this

I spoke to O2 and went through a settings reset and phone restore. Neither cured the phone. the O2 CS guy asked me to put SIM in another phone to see if itwas SIM/Signal or Phone.

The sim and calls worked fine at full strength (but only GPRS). He then concluded it was the iPhone and a trip to the Apple store was in order.

HOWEVER - today I tried turning off 3g and the iPhone works great with GPRS/Edge. So I rang CS again and spoke to a more helpful (and knowledgeable) lady. She checked her system and said that I lived over 10mls away from a 3g mast so signal would be weak.

IMPORTANTLY she said that the iPhone does not have the ability to auto step-down to Edge or GPRS. Therefore, if it does not have signal it needs for a good 3g signal you will get dropped calls/failed connection and poor or non-existent data.

She suggested turning off 3g in sysprefs and only turning it on in an area know to be a good 3g area.

OBSERVATION - data/email and calls all work quicker on GPRS/Edge than on a struggling (and false reading ) 3g setting. :(

:mad: Having bought the 3gs(!?!) for its hi speed data capabilities and the fact that all my machines are on mobileme and Macs, I am very miffed that you only find out later that O2 has VERY patchy 3g coverage which they acknowledge and hope to fix soon. In the meantime they point you to the small print of the T&C and say hard luck. :mad:

Come on ORANGE! get the iPhone!!

Rick
 
Small White Car said:
I have about 4-5 dropped calls a week.

Sometimes more.

So I've probably had about 200-250 dropped calls since I've bought the phone.

The post above about turning off 3G is true, I've found.

EDIT: That doesn't include the "failed calls" where you dial someone and it ends up giving you a "try again" button. I've probably had about 50 of those.
Click to expand...

Hate to say it but this sounds almost exactly the same as my experience in Arlington. I've had 2 dropped calls already today and average around 5 or so a week. I love the iphone features but as a phone (I can only speak for me) it is a gigantic fail.
 
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