Multiple call management issues

[falterego]

I've had these issues for a while, and only today have they become a great annoyance. Here is scenario one.

I have no calls going. I call my wife and it rings to her voicemail. During her voicemail greeting, she calls back and my phone prompts me with 3 options

Ignore
Hold and answer
End call

-Ignore sends her to voicemail...not my goal
-Hold and answer means I get to talk to her, but I end up leaving a 2 minute long silent voicemail. Also, I cannot receive a third call during this 2 minutes. If it happens to be a call that doesn't auto-disconnect, I'll have two calls running the entire time and cannot receive another incoming call. Big problem when I'm on a 3 hour conference call.
-End call sends her to voicemail and ends the call I have to leave her a message. Also not my goal.

How do I end one call and answer the second incoming call?
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Second scenario

I am on a long conference call and my wife calls in. I hit the "hold and answer" option and everything is perfect. Then she does not hang up and instead just puts her phone in her purse. I have two options here

Swap calls
End

-Swap calls will swap, but the call with my wife's phone is still going. She has unlimited minutes, but not unlimited battery. Additionally, she will not hear her phone ring if someone else calls her until the ongoing call is over.
-End hangs up BOTH calls. In some cases I cannot call back into the particular conference system, or if I do it announces and interrupts the call and is just flat out rude.

Another time this is an issue is if the call simply does not disconnect when the second caller hangs up.

How do I disconnect just one call if the "End" button hangs them both up?



I'm running iOS 5.1.1 and I did a restore of the phone a few days ago when I got was starting to get annoyed with this.

 

[scaredpoet]

-Ignore sends her to voicemail...not my goal
-Hold and answer means I get to talk to her, but I end up leaving a 2 minute long silent voicemail. Also, I cannot receive a third call during this 2 minutes. If it happens to be a call that doesn't auto-disconnect, I'll have two calls running the entire time and cannot receive another incoming call. Big problem when I'm on a 3 hour conference call.
-End call sends her to voicemail and ends the call I have to leave her a message. Also not my goal.

How do I end one call and answer the second incoming call?

From what you describe, you're on a CDMA network (likely Sprint or Verizon). If that's the case, then your only option is to switch to AT&T, which supports both End-Call-and-Answer, and receiving more than 2 calls at once.

The non-support of these two features is a network limitation typically inherent of CDMA. There's an Apple support document that describes some of the differences and limitations:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4515


EDIT: Looks like page 58 of the iPhone manual has the answer.

"To end the first call and answer the new one: When using a GSM network, tap End Call + Answer. With a CDMA network, tap End Call and when the second call rings back, tap Answer, or drag the slider if the phone is locked."

So, for CDMA, you're supposed to be able to end the call, and the second call coming in is supposed to ring back.

-------------------------------------------
Second scenario

I am on a long conference call and my wife calls in. I hit the "hold and answer" option and everything is perfect. Then she does not hang up and instead just puts her phone in her purse. I have two options here

Swap calls
End

-Swap calls will swap, but the call with my wife's phone is still going. She has unlimited minutes, but not unlimited battery. Additionally, she will not hear her phone ring if someone else calls her until the ongoing call is over.
-End hangs up BOTH calls. In some cases I cannot call back into the particular conference system, or if I do it announces and interrupts the call and is just flat out rude.

Another time this is an issue is if the call simply does not disconnect when the second caller hangs up.

Again, this is not an issue I've encountered on AT&T. This is likely a network issue.

But... not to sound insensitive here, but why is it difficult/impossible for your wife to hang up the phone?

 

[falterego]

Not insensitive at all. I wonder why she can't do it either, but there are other instances where a call simply does not disconnect. My office voicemail system has a 30 minute message limit, so if I reach my boss' voicemail and he calls back I'd have a 30 minute blank message for him when the call was over.

As for the option to hit end call and wait for the second to ring back, I have yet to experience that happening properly. If it weren't for their disgustingly poor reception and beyond outrageous price I'd consider moving to AT&T, mostly for the simultaneous voice and data. The only other draw back would be losing unlimited data with Sprint. I hit 4GB a month on a regular basis, some months a bit over 5GB. On AT&T that would be a VERY expensive bill.

Either way, thank you very much for finding me the answer. My Google-fu didn't return that Apple article, and it looks like my issue shouldn't really exist. Perhaps I'll try to get the phone replaced since a restore still doesn't seem to fix it.

 

[scaredpoet]

You can try a restore, and a repalcement, but I really don't think that's gonna do it. It boils down to how the network is configured, and as an 8-year-long customer of Sprint before moving to AT&T, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Sprint just isn't set up for these features to work as they should.

Maybe you could give Verizon a shot?

 

[georover1]

I have a sprint iphone 5 and was getting annoyed by this also but I found if while on a call and receiving a call if you just hit end, the original call will end and a couple seconds later the phone will ring with the new incoming call. Slow, but it does work.