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Recent decline in call quality, Wifi Calling not reliable

I have a just over 1 year-old Samsung S21 5G phone.

For the first year, the phone and service has been great. We're in a marginal 5G but strong 4G area according to your map, and have been customers in this location for more than 15 years.

For the last several months, I have not been able to use my phone reliably inside our home at all. My wife's Moto G Stylus (4G only) works flawlessly inside the house.

I have had really bad or unusable connections, but ONLY here inside the house. My phone shows 1-2 (rarely 3) bars of 4G/LTE or 5G signal, depending on where I am in the house. But I can't get a reliable phone call on cell service except when I stand in front of one particular window in the house, and WiFi Calling doesn't seem to help at all.

I have WiFi calling and Video calling activated, and we have excellent (100+mbs) internet with a strong mesh router system that covers the whole house at full speed.

I've tried making and receiving calls with and without WiFi Calling on, and it doesn't seem to matter.

I've tried everything. Checking for software updates (I'm on G991USQS5CVI8 now, but nothing has changed after the last several updates.)

I've rebooted the phone.

I've rebooted the router (even though every other internet device in the house works fine, and I get about 100mbs on WiFi tests on the phone.

All internet apps and browsers work fine on WiFi at home.

The phone works fine everywhere else I use it. But for some reason, I can't get it to work reliably either on cell service, or WiFi calling at home.

What is going on? This problem started several months ago (maybe 4-6?), but I can't tell you exactly when. I kept thinking it would get better, and that maybe a tower was messed up.

But now I have a nearly $800 phone that doesn't work as well as my wife's 4G Moto G that cost 1/3 as much. And I'm getting pretty fed up with it. We've been customers for many years, precisely because of the good reliable service we've had. But this is getting unbearable, and I'm seriously considering changing carriers.

What can I try?

Comments

Verizon_Support

Hello Flyboyron, we know it is very important for you to have reliable services, also, you are a valuable customer for us, we need to review in detail your account such as the location, and how the area is in your home where the service is.

Appreciate your time, we are always here to help, but, this is a public channel, we need to access your account, and manage your personal information directly with us. Please feel free to get in contact with us 1-800-837-4966.

>Angel

ososister

I have the same problem! Thanks for elaborating on the details. Verizon even sent me a complimentary Network Extender. They advised me to put in a 5 G SIM card, and it would have been complimentary but we only have a Retail Verizon Store.

They also an NRB Ticket for cell tower trouble shooting, but there was few responses ( a couple of texts, no phone calls).

Really don't want to go outside in the winter to use the call.

Haven't tried the Wi-Fi calling so thank you for describing that issue. I have spent too many hours in these 'fixes'. The sales rep at the retail store said Verizon doesn't have good coverage in the area, though it used to.

Thanks again for describing this issue!!!

ososister

Same issues, I have a Galaxy S10+.

Flyboyron

I finally had time to call in today. (I knew it would take a while, and it did.)

Two different tries at the automated "agent" got me nowhere except dumping all my WiFi data, about which it did warn me. Took a total of over an hour. The problem is, when you call in, they send a text with a link to open a chat session on the cell phone, using the Verizon app.

It had me reset my WiFi and Network settings, remove/replace the SIM card, power cycle the phone, and all the stuff I'd already tried. Of course, half those steps end up disconnecting the phone and restarting the whole process after rebooting the phone, so that's kind of dumb.

Miraculously (NOT), that didn't work this time either.

Finally got an actual technician on the phone after 2 tries. She complained about not being able to hear me, though I could hear her, at which time I pointed out that was exactly the point of my call!

So then I moved to the only 3' circle in the house where I could get a reliable connection, and was able to talk to her. I recounted what I had done already, because she was starting down that same tree and I didn't want to waste another 1/2 hour. She went offline for several minutes (about 10) and then came back and took my other wired phone number, so we could shut down my cell phone, and called me on that.

She had me turn the phone off for 2 minutes while she did something on her end to "reset the communications network." I was skeptical, but went along with it.

After that, it seems to be working in places it didn't before. I hope that does the trick, and if not, I'll be back.

But for now, two calls have gone through just fine, which never happened before during this issue.

ososister

Flyboyron,

I guess I have to call them again! I am going to copy/ paste all your comments and print them and mine out so that I have a script. I already spent about 3 hours total on the phone with Verizon, I dread getting started again.

My neighbor uses T-Mobile and doesn't have this issue. Was even thinking whether or not buying an iPhone would solve this.

Thanks for being a trailblazer.

Verizon_Support

Hello,ososister. I'll gladly assist you with this matter. I'll send you a Private Note to continue with the personalized assistance.

>Mel

Verizon_Support

Thanks for allowing us access. For account security, please confirm your full name as it appears on the account.

-Lorenzo

Flyboyron

OK, the temporary fix was just that, unless it was just luck. Since the last post above, I am back to having continuous problems with calling within my home. We went through about an hour of troubleshooting on the phone with 2 or 3 different technicians, and then I was able to get a few calls through.

But the next day, I'm back where I was.

Again, to summarize, I have a Galaxy S21 5G phone, in a marginal 5G area, but with decent 4G signal which works fine with my wife's 4G only Moto G Stylus phone everywhere in the house.

I can rarely get a decent voice call through (I can hear them, but no one can hear me) in most locations in my home.

The phone is set to use Wi-Fi calling when needed, but though I have excellent mesh Wi-Fi and good coverage, that never seems to work either. I've tried turning that feature off and back on, sometimes leaving it off, but all to no avail.

ANYTIME I try to use this phone inside my home, the other person can't reliably hear me more than 10% of the time.

I understand 5G isn't reliable everywhere, but this phone is supposed to fall back to 4G and use Wi-Fi , but neither seems to work at all.

My internet services work perfectly and quickly with the phone in about any location. Wi-Fi, 5G/4G data, etc. But for voice, like a phone is supposed to be made for, is completely unusable within the house. My Wi-Fi signal is strong everywhere, and I have 100MB/sec service, which tests well everywhere inside the house.

I need to know how to get this actually fixed, either with a new phone, or something else that works (Picocell?)

How do I do that without spending half a day on the phone with a person telling me they can't understand me? (Duh!)

Verizon_Support

Hi, there! We are sending a Private Note, so we can continue working with you on this platform. *Andrea

Jasond85

I am currently having similar issues. Live in Atlanta suburbs with fine coverage outside. Had Verizon and iPhones for a decade at this house with no issue, then about the time our tower nearest went to 5g my cell calls would drop or digitize while talking. I switched to WiFi calling and it was better as long as I don’t move the phone at all. It drops calls constantly. Called Verizon and sent me an LTE extender, and that works, except I don’t have a permanent place to put it. Had to bear a window and Ethernet port which is difficult in my house, so not sure what to do. Quality has dropped on Verizon since the 5g switch. I guess they don’t care about people actually talking on a phone reliably anymore, just data. I can make a FaceTime audio call with perfect clarity and reliability.

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