Jelly Bean 4.1.1 Phone Calls Bug

[greysonofusa]

There is a serious issue with the software which handles the phone function on the Samsung Galaxy S3 for AT&T. Once updating to Jelly Bean the last thing you will notice is that you phone works about as well as those 80's bricks did when they first hit the market. Unfortunately, this is true, after updating you will notice that when trying to place a call to any number anywhere the phone will successfully connect 1 out of 5 tries. Usually the error you will get is call ended in phone call and then in the logs you will see the message call cancelled. You will also notice that you aren't as popular as you used to be. Truth be told people are trying to call you but your line is now busy half of the time and they are unable to get in touch or even leave a voicemail. Essentially Samsung did everything perfect with this update except the phone function. So far to try to solve this issue I have done the following:

1. Pulled the battery
2. Removed and re-inserted sim car
3. Replaced the sim
4. Did a factory reset
5. Did a hard reset
6. Ordered a replacement device

After the replacement device came in. I popped the battery and sim in and fired it up. Noticed it had 4.1.1 pre-installed. First thing I did after getting though the setup was place a call. Beeep Call Ended. My wife tried to call me from her phone and a land line also and nothing came through. I have now pinpointed the issue as a software bug and Samsung is to receive full blame. I hope I am not the only one here on 4.1.1 with AT&T having this issue please report it to AT&T and then get them to call Samsung and notify the company of the issue. The more complaints that roll in the more the company will realize they have to release a patch.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I would suggest opening a network ticket with 611, then after the ticket is opened and they give you the number, call 888-343-7992. That is a very small department, they can look at everything and every tower your phone has connected to, they can tell you how many dropped calls, not connected calls, etc and they can tell you what your phone is doing in real time.

You have to open a network ticket first, for them to check towers. Of course going through 611, they are going to want to "troubleshoot" your device, even though you have replaced it, that is their script at 611 and they must do that first. If they don't go ahead and open a network ticket, they will send you to Tier 2 and they might want to troubleshoot it again, but if you explain about exchanging the phone and the SIM card, chances are good they will open the network ticket for you and that ticket will go to Tier 3, then call the number I gave you and they can give you a ton of info then what is going on with your calls and the towers and they will add that info to your network ticket. Those are the people that get to the engineers, because this is most likely a 4G/LTE Tower issue. I'm having an issue myself, not with the dropped calls, I've only had 4, but my phone is connecting to the wrong tower far away and sometimes my phone doesn't ring, I just suddenly have a voicemail.

Now I have also found if you go through these steps and still are having an issue and call Samsung, they will take your phone and check it out completely (I'm assuming it is under the 1 year warranty) for free and then fix it for free if they find an issue.

 

[greysonofusa]

I have traveled all over the country and this has happened in New York and in California. The location has not made a positive or negative effect on this problem. All I know is that the phone was working like a phone running android 4.0.4

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I have traveled all over the country and this has happened in New York and in California. The location has not made a positive or negative effect on this problem. All I know is that the phone was working like a phone running android 4.0.4

Yeah again, it's a 4G issue with AT&T and phones aren't connecting to the correct tower, all over the country. It's happening everywhere they have 4G/LTE.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Also so you know, this isn't just happening with the S3 or just Jelly Bean or even Android only. Same thing in my area is happening with my neighbors iphone5 and anyone that is on AT&T with a 4G phone that comes to my house.

This is AT&T and it's not just one area. If you turn off LTE, you don't have this issue. I have been dealing with this issue with AT&T for 6 weeks now, I'm not just pulling "this is AT&T 4G" out of the air.

You might also want AT&T to send a PRL update to the phone.

 

[greysonofusa]

I will try creating a 3G APN on the device and deleting the default. I will see if I still am having issues I will let you know.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I will try creating a 3G APN on the device and deleting the default. I will see if I still am having issues I will let you know.

Don't delete the default one. Just create a wap.cingular APN, leave the default one and just switch it over to the 3G APN.

Also, network tickets need to be filed, there are departments that when they start seeing a certain amount of tickets with the same issue, it flags them and they get involved, more chance of having it solved.

Also, we aren't supposed to have to update our PRL, it's supposed to happen automatically when turning the phone off, but it doesn't always. In my case, updating my PRL didn't help, nor the SIM card change. All the towers around me are 4G/LTE towers and I am in the best coverage area that AT&T has, but when I'm on LTE, I connect to a tower 4 miles away, as does everyone on my street and beyond. There are microcells all over my area, and I am surrounded by towers and the "dark orange" coverage on AT&T's maps. I have 3 towers in a triangle around me, 2 are a mile away on either side and 1 is half a mile behind me, but being on 4G/LTE for some reason that tower 4 miles in front of me "attracts" my phone, but I only get one bar with it.

One thing that also might give you an idea if this is the same problem, when you are on a phone call on that phone, if you look and you have a much better signal, odds are you are doing the same thing I am. When you are on a call and the LTE is off, then you connect to the correct tower. If you file the network ticket and then call the dept I gave the number for on the phone, they will tell you exactly what towers you are connecting to in real time. That dept is not like 611 at all, it's a small dept, less than 30 people, so it's not like getting a stranger that doesn't understand the situation every time you call. Also like I said, if they see you are doing the same thing with towers that I am, they can reopen tickets that Engineering has close and said "towers are fine, it's the device" and communicate directly with them giving them the specific info about your specific device and the towers you are connecting to.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

This is what I did to be able to turn off the 4G/LTE, works great.

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S III: Disabling 4G LTE and Using HSPA+ to Conserve Battery - YouTube

 

[greysonofusa]

Maam you are most correct. I tried a different apn. One for HSPA+ and I was able to call my wifes phone without error.

I sure hope AT&T works on their LTE network.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I'm a ma'am lol

I would still report it with the network ticket, the more tickets we get filed, the quicker they fix whatever the issue is.

 

[greysonofusa]

Sorry about that :-\
I found the proper 4G LTE Settings to use which does not cause phone call issues. When they updated jelly bean AT&T had them use a new APN which apparently rocks for internet but blows for voice. I grabbed this APN from a buddy's S3 still running 4.0.4 Enjoy! and by the way I recommend all AT&T users running jelly bean use this apn instead of the default on 4.1.1


Below is the APN settings on the Galaxy S3 for AT&T running 4.0.4:

Name: pta
APN: pta
Proxy: Blank
Port: Blank
Username: blank
Password: blank
Server: blank
MMSC: blank
MMS Proxy: blank
MMS Port: blank
MCC: 310
MNC: 410
Authentication type: Blank
APN Type: default,internet,mms,supl
APN protocol: leave as is
Bearer: leave as is

 

[whartzel]

My wife and I have been having the same call receiving issues here at home when connected to wifi. These appear to have started after upgrading to 4.1.1. This fix has corrected the problem in my S3. Thank you.

 

[wenzelr]

This exact same issue is being discussed on an ATT forum as well.
It can be found here:
Samsung Galaxy S3 Not Receiving Calls - Phone issu... - AT&T Community Support

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I have now pinpointed the issue as a software bug and Samsung is to receive full blame. .

I just love how people jump to conclusions without really understanding anything at all.



Sent from my Sprint Galaxy S3. Please forgive any typos or auto-correct errors.

 

[mty msi]

This has been a known issue to AT&T since 1-09-13 per their tech support who called me 8 days after I started having the problem in late January and called them about 12 times. They said a ticket should not have been opened for my phone because it was already a known issue. It is in every 4G market on every 4G device AT&T uses. AT&T tech support told me the issue was caused by a Lucent (manufacturer's name) switch they use in their 4G network and theirs and Lucent's engineers had not yet resolved the issue in early February. The problem is Tier 1 tech support usually doesn't know anything about it and every time you call you get a different response as to what the problem is. Evidently the problem is still not resolved. I am on my 3rd phone for this issue and 4G/LTE was disabled when I picked it up. I called a week ago and spoke to Tier 2 Tech Support who assured me the problem had been resolved but I did not believe it as the individual I spoke with did not know the problem existed. AT&T has a large problem with their 4G/LTE network nationwide and it appears they are doing their very best not to admit it. So far I think they've succeeded. AT&T is not informing their frontline tech people that we would speak with about the problem, that's why you can't get any resolution from them or even for them to tell you the problem exists.

 

[D16RR]

I just love how people jump to conclusions without really understanding anything at all.



Sent from my Sprint Galaxy S3. Please forgive any typos or auto-correct errors.

Lighten up boss. You ride a bandit. You got nothing on anyone.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Lighten up boss. You ride a bandit. You got nothing on anyone.

I've had a lot of other bikes, too. But my body's too broken down to deal with a sport bike riding position any more. I do wish I still had the Mike Hailwood replica Duc, though.