Three dropped calls with S7; never dropped calls on Note 2.

[monicakm]

I've had the s7 for about a month now, and get dropped calls on just about every extended call - typically about 30 minutes into the call. Many times, I'm sitting in the same spot, in my same apartment, without moving for the entire duration of the call, so in my case the dropped calls aren't due to moving from LTE-capable to non-LTE-capable areas. I've also had static/interference on just about every call, and folks on the other side of the line often get interference or worse, suddenly can't hear me at all even when I can still hear them.

EXACTLY. I'm going to turn off Advanced Calling all together. I turned off Video calling but left HD on...99% of my calls are to people on the same network (Verizon with HD capable phones). I'm turning it off as of right now to see if things improve.

 

[scotiez]

EXACTLY. I'm going to turn off Advanced Calling all together. I turned off Video calling but left HD on...99% of my calls are to people on the same network (Verizon with HD capable phones). I'm turning it off as of right now to see if things improve.

Keep posting what you find when you turn off the feature. I haven't had alot of problems but if the phone just works better with it off i will also turn it off. I think the HD Voice and video calling for Verizon has a lot of bugs yet. Maybe its something that shouldn't have been turned on by default by Verizon. With this turned on some Customers are having a bad experience with a new device and blaming the device instead of the carrier.

 

[monicakm]

It worked great with my S5 and still working great with my husband's S5...who knows how it works with my mother's. She's on ATT so.....:-\ Maybe there will be a fix for that and AIRVIEW <g>

 

[teg10]

The problem with turning off Advanced Calling is that I think it then disables simultaneous voice/data. Seems things shouldn't be this hard?!

 

[1812dave]

The problem with turning off Advanced Calling is that I think it then disables simultaneous voice/data. Seems things shouldn't be this hard?!

Just tested it. Much to my surprise there is no data when advanced calling is off and we don't have a wifi connection during a call.

 

[teg10]

Okay, today I experienced another problem that might be related to the dropped calls, so thought I'd post here rather than start a new thread.

In calling my bank today, the bank's automated system could not recognize my keypad entries (i.e., when I was trying to enter my account number, etc.). The bank's 'Julie' kept prompting me to enter the number, despite my entering the number multiple times. Julie also didn't recognize my voice. It was as though anything I did on my end just wasn't transmitting over the line.

I was on speakerphone, and had some music in the background, so took my phone off speakerphone and the bank appeared to then recognize my keypad entries.

But when a live rep got on the phone, she could not hear me at all (my voice in this case), even though I could hear her clearly, and after a few attempts to get her to hear me, she asked me to call them back.

Super odd, as I didn't know entering numbers from the keypad had a similar effect as speaking with my voice - i.e., somehow, when one doesn't register with the person on the other end, apparently the other doesn't either (?).

When I called back, I made sure there wasn't any background noise, and the call and my keypad entries went through fine. Still very staticky throughout the call though. And not sure if removing the background noise was the thing that did it - it might have just been a coincidence.

All calls were made in the same spot in my apartment, where I make many of my calls.

Has this ever happened to anyone? And any clue re: why my bank couldn't pick up my keypad entries and under what circumstances this would happen? Wondering if it's tied to the other problem where the person on the other end can't hear my voice at all, but I can hear them.

 

[monicakm]

I'm not quite ready to say turning off Advanced Calling has totally fixed the bad connection problem but only because I've only made like 2 calls since then. They were fine but I need more calls to be certain.
I'm I understanding right that if Advanced Calling is OFF you can't talk and browse the Internet at the same time? If that's not the issue, what is "there is no data when advanced calling is off"?
Thanks

 

[teg10]

I'm I understanding right that if Advanced Calling is OFF you can't talk and browse the Internet at the same time? If that's not the issue, what is "there is no data when advanced calling is off"?
Thanks

Yes, that's right - with Advanced Calling turned off, you give up simultaneous voice/data - i.e., if you're on a call, you can't browse the web, use other online apps, etc. You can easily test this - play Spotify or Pandora, then make a call; the music will stop while the call goes through.

I'm not sure if you can make a call via cellular and then try to access the internet in parallel via wifi - wasn't able to figure out how to do this/if it's possible.

Sadly, even with Advanced Calling on and the right settings toggled via my Verizon account, I still can't get simultaneous voice/data. Apparently others have reported this problem too. I'm going to have to take it into a Verizon store to have them figure it out.

 

[1812dave]

Yes, that's right - with Advanced Calling turned off, you give up simultaneous voice/data - i.e., if you're on a call, you can't browse the web, use other online apps, etc. You can easily test this - play Spotify or Pandora, then make a call; the music will stop while the call goes through.

While it is true that without Advanced Calling enabled we can't do simultaneous data/voice, Pandora or other music won't play anyway when on a call, ie, even when AC is enabled, as who wants music playing when trying to speak to someone via the phone.

 

[teg10]

While it is true that without Advanced Calling enabled we can't do simultaneous data/voice, Pandora or other music won't play anyway when on a call, ie, even when AC is enabled, as who wants music playing when trying to speak to someone via the phone.

Haha, just realized that - bad example. Related question (but way OT from OP) -- do you.anyone know how to auto-disable notifications etc from interrupting audio when streaming a music app like Spotify? I.e., would like the phone to know to not interrupt when I'm streaming music from it - except maybe for calls, and don't want to have to disable one-off each time.

 

[monicakm]

Do you guys see this as something that will be fixed in (hopefully soon) updates to the OS or firmware? My calls are so much more clear without AC enabled and honestly, I make a lot more phone calls than I do call/surf combinations...like hardly ever, but, it's a nice feature to have when you want or need it.

 

[Bikergram]

Have had the s7 for about a month and a half. In past week, I started to get dropped calls at my house, where with all previous phones (last one was s5) I have had excellent call quality and service. Extremely annoying. I've now disabled HD Voice and Video Calling. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

 

[monicakm]

It might be a little early to post this but I'm going to anyway. I called Verizon today to discuss the poor call quality with my S7 when AC was enabled and that disabling it helped but then I couldn't use data and calling at the same time.
He had me turn off my phone (AC was already disabled). He disabled and re-enabled AC on Verizon's end and then told me to turn my phone on and enable AC. He gave me his email address and asked me to use the phone with AC enabled for a week and let him know how the call quality was. I've made two calls tonight. One to my husband on the other end of the house and one hour long call to my sister in CA (I'm in TX). Both calls were CRYSTAL clear! No garbled voice, no cutting in and out. No odd sounds. One call was to an S5 and the other to a landline. I'm hopeful that Verizon resetting the feature on their end did the trick but I know it's too early to call it. By the way, I always have my sister call me on my landline because the connection/call quality is so much better (and that was with my S5). Tonight the call was the most clear I've ever experienced.

 

[teg10]

It might be a little early to post this but I'm going to anyway. I called Verizon today to discuss the poor call quality with my S7 when AC was enabled and that disabling it helped but then I couldn't use data and calling at the same time.
He had me turn off my phone (AC was already disabled). He disabled and re-enabled AC on Verizon's end and then told me to turn my phone on and enable AC. He gave me his email address and asked me to use the phone with AC enabled for a week and let him know how the call quality was. I've made two calls tonight. One to my husband on the other end of the house and one hour long call to my sister in CA (I'm in TX). Both calls were CRYSTAL clear! No garbled voice, no cutting in and out. No odd sounds. One call was to an S5 and the other to a landline. I'm hopeful that Verizon resetting the feature on their end did the trick but I know it's too early to call it. By the way, I always have my sister call me on my landline because the connection/call quality is so much better (and that was with my S5). Tonight the call was the most clear I've ever experienced.

great to know! will brace msyelf for *yet another* verizon call.

 

[monicakm]

I have made and received numerous phone calls today. Still perfect reception! However, I've been in the same location all day (home). Granted I was getting less than stellar call quality before but until I can test it in various locales, I'm not ready to call it a full on success. But, so far so good

 

[monicakm]

Sound quality is still much better since Verizon disabled and re-enabled Advanced Calling on their end. I made and received a few phone calls yesterday while away from the house. Call quality was excellent on the phone as well as thru my car's speakers via Ford Sync. I didn't drop a call but received one in an area that has always been bad about cutting in and out. That still happened but the sound quality of the call was still good. I'm ready to call Verizon's action of resetting AC a success Try it. What have you got to lose?

 

[teg10]

Awesome, monicakm. Thanks for reporting back. I've been verizon-call fatigued given a number of trouble-shooting I've needed to do with them, but you've inspired me to get moving on this.

 

[monicakm]

My final test...and it passed
I've made exactly two phone calls with the S7 while in Walmart. The first (before Verizon reset AC) was
so bad I just had to hang up. Today (after Verizon reset AC) it was a strong and clear connection

Hope anyone that gives Verizon a call and have them reset (turn off and back on) AC, will post here and let us
know how it worked for you.

 

[sushiguy732]

What carrier are you on? I am on verizon and when advanced calling first came out i was dropping calls, then the system got better and now on advanced calling i cant even remember a dropped call in my normal area.

The reason i ask is since you are going from a note2 to an s7 there may be some settings that need tweaked.

Sent with my white Note5 with nonremovable back and no SDcard!

I had the S5 and not a single dropped call here in my house. Now with the S7 it happens all the time. I have both advanced calling and wifi calling enabled.

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[teg10]

Good thing I braced myself for the Verizon call. I ended up on the phone with three reps for nearly three hours. The Verizon rep who did the main troubleshooting saw firsthand the dropped call problem as it happened several times during our session (thankfully before the fixes).

We did several things, all from the same spot in my apartment where I make most of my calls.

• I toggled my phone settings to AC on (it's been off for a while), HD voice enabled (only possible with AC on), and LTE/CDMA network (it's been on), then turned my phone off. Rep disconnected then reconnected my phone from the line (which he said can help with call quality/signal issues), and reset my AC on their end. We then tested call quality several times with him calling me on the line.
• Tested voice/data when I was on the call with the rep, with AC enabled, wifi on, and cellular data off (this should also work with wifi off and cellular data on, or with both on..)
• Tested wireless calling. For that, had to toggle my settings so cellular data was off, wifi was on, and wireless calling under AC feature was enabled. Not sure why cellular data needs to be off before you can enable wifi calling, but the rep said the phone will only make wifi calls when cellular data is off, and there's no way to otherwise 'force' a wifi call. Might try to test this later.

After we reset my AC, call quality was notably better for me with the rep coming through clearly and with minimal interference. But the rep said that the call quality was just 'okay' on his end (better than before, but still not stellar). And after the reset, when I was getting out of my chair, he suddenly couldn't hear me well and said there was lots of interference. :-(

Sound volume via the earpiece seemed to be comparable if not a tad worse than before the reset - I had to strain to hear the rep even at full volume. When on speakerphone, volume was more than adequate and perhaps better than before the reset, but the rep reported that I sounded far away and it was much better when I took him off speakerphone.

So bottom line, with the AC reset the call quality was noticeably better on my end (only a tad better on the other person's end); and call volume was comparable if not a tad worse via the earpiece (maybe better than before via speakerphone). At this point, the rep said the only remaining solution he could think of was switching out SIM cards, so we're going to try that.

Re: voice/data, we got it to work but I first had to access the internet, then make the call. When I made the call without first accessing the internet, then tried to access the internet during the call, I got an error messaging saying I had no internet connection. Odd.

Re: wireless, I'd say this was the win. It worked very well in my apartment, where my download speeds range from 40-60 mbps. Calls seemed clearer with less interference than when using 4G/LTE after the AC reset. Volume via the earpiece seemed a tad louder; speaker volume was more than adequate, as it was using 4G/LTE with AC reset. Unfortunately, according to the rep there's no default setting where the phone will revert to wifi calling when certain conditions are met, so if you're using cellular most of the time, you have to reset the phone each time you want to use wifi.

I'm going to likely use wifi calling most of the time when home, and will test it in other spots to see how it holds up. I'll also continue to test 4G/LTE calling with the AC reset, just to see how it's working over time and in different places.

EDIT: Wifi calling ths morning seems to be a tad patchier than last night, but still acceptable (maybe on par with 4G/LTE post-reset). My wifi download speed is still showing 50+mbps, so not sure what's up.