Galaxy S7 signal drops only during calls

[danielinthelionsden]

I recently switched my mobile provider from H2O-wireless (ATT) to tracfone (Verizon) because my Galaxy S7 (SM-G930U) was no longer compatible with the VoLTE requirements for the H2O-wireless ATT network. There is a Verizon tower about 1/2 mile from my house so I expected to have excellent reception. And it would appear as though I do have great reception, until I make a phone call. The phone will show 5 full bars of signal and as soon as I make/answer a call it drops to one or two or even no bars and calls will break up quite a bit unless I hold the phone the just perfect spot. I've checked the settings on the phone and VoLTE is turned on. I'm not really sure what else to check or what could be causing the problem. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[B. Diddy]

It sounds like VoLTE isn't working the way it should. Sometimes a phone that was intended for another network won't work entirely correctly on another network when it comes to VoLTE. Have you asked Verizon about this?

 

[danielinthelionsden]

Ok, thanks for the input. I guess I might need to talk to support. Since it's tracfone I've been a little hesitant on that it can sometimes take a long time to get through to support. Also to be clear this is the "Universal" factory unlocked S7 so it's not intended for the ATT network or anything like that.

This morning I did try driving over to a different and older Verizon tower. At that tower I had 5 bars of LTE and when I made a call the "LTE" disappeared but the 5 bars stayed the same. I guessing the tower near my house must be LTE only and that the VoLTE on my phone isn't working and instead it's switching to a different tower for calls.

 

[Ben xfg]

Ok, thanks for the input. I guess I might need to talk to support. Since it's tracfone I've been a little hesitant on that it can sometimes take a long time to get through to support. Also to be clear this is the "Universal" factory unlocked S7 so it's not intended for the ATT network or anything like that.

This morning I did try driving over to a different and older Verizon tower. At that tower I had 5 bars of LTE and when I made a call the "LTE" disappeared but the 5 bars stayed the same. I guessing the tower near my house must be LTE only and that the VoLTE on my phone isn't working and instead it's switching to a different tower for calls.

It seems like VoLTE isn't configured correctly so it drops down to 3G for calls. Have you checked if your APN settings match what your specific carrier requires?

 

[danielinthelionsden]

So I did a little bit of experimenting last night to try to troubleshoot the problem and I think I inadvertently fixed it. I tried putting my SIM card in a family member's Pixel 3 to see if the VoLTE worked in that phone. It did so I put the SIM back in my phone and now I'm getting 5 bars of signal during phone calls and the "LTE" indicator stays on during the call as well. So I'm thinking there was something wrong in the network and putting the SIM in a different phone triggered it to reset something.