4G LTE Network Extender - phone not ringing, incoming calls going to voicemail

[mekertzman]

Hi - my wife and I both have iPhone 12 Pro Max phones, so they're the latest.  We live in a very marginal/no signal Verizon location (Ignacio Valley, Novato, California).  I've always had trouble getting WiFi calling to work, as it seemed like sometimes it appeared and sometimes it didn't depending on whether the phone was seeing a weak Verizon signal.

We got a 4G LTE Network Extender - easy setup, works great for outgoing calls, 4 bar signal strength through the whole house, #48 always shows connected to extender.  However, even when I'm sitting a few feet from the extender, calls seems to not ring and go to voicemail.  

I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas.

Thanks!

[jav6]

---

@mekertzman wrote:

Hi - my wife and I both have iPhone 12 Pro Max phones, so they're the latest.  We live in a very marginal/no signal Verizon location (Ignacio Valley, Novato, California).  I've always had trouble getting WiFi calling to work, as it seemed like sometimes it appeared and sometimes it didn't depending on whether the phone was seeing a weak Verizon signal.

We got a 4G LTE Network Extender - easy setup, works great for outgoing calls, 4 bar signal strength through the whole house, #48 always shows connected to extender.  However, even when I'm sitting a few feet from the extender, calls seems to not ring and go to voicemail.  

I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas.

Thanks!

---

Is WiFi calling ON?  You might try turning it OFF to see if that helps.   What type of internet service and what are the download/upload speeds do you have the extender connected to?  There may be other threads discussing extender issues with iPhones.  Try searching the Forum.

[mekertzman]

Thanks.  WiFi calling was still on.  I turned it off - we'll see if that helps.  On internet service, I have Comcast gigabit service.  The phone is getting about 250mbps down and 40mbps up, so that should be enough for the extender!  🙂

[vzw_customer_support]

We want to do everything we can to resolve this ASAP so that you can receive all your calls. When did this issue first start?  Is this happening with all calls or just some incoming calls?

[mekertzman]

Thanks for following up.  This has been going on as long as I’ve had the 4G LTE Extender.  To be fair, it used to happen on WiFi calling as well, but I thought the WiFi calling issue was that VZW WiFi used to come and go, and my theory was that there was occasionally a weak VZW signal that made the phone think it was on the cellular network and drop WiFi calling.  I’d love to see Apple and Verizon agree to make a setting on the iPhone to “prefer WiFi” when making calls - that would solve the problem.

I find it hard to tell which calls get through and which go to voicemail.  Many calls go to voicemail that were junk and my guess is Verizon Call Filter is doing its job and sending them straight to voicemail.  However, some calls are on my contact list and go to voicemail without ringing the phone.

In reading the community posts, I see a fair number of people who have a similar problem, although not necessarily with the Extender.  Some of them write that they called tech support and the problem was fixed in the network, not at their local end.  Does that sound at all familiar or possible to you?

Mitchell

[ssprill]

I have the same issue (calls go to voice mail, no ring, no missed call message) when using Askey LTE Extender.  This occurs with both Wifi calling on/off.  This is my sons Extender that he uses when he works remotely at my house.  He is postpaid.  I have a prepaid account but this is happening with both his postpaid and my prepaid phones.  Prepaid support did research and they said that they see the Extender rejecting calls but they could not offer any additional help because only postpaid supports the Extender.  Post paid support says that this issue occurs because I am a prepaid customer but this also happens on my sons postpaid phone.  I have kind of given up after many hours with support with no resolution. 

Verizon needs to find out why the Askey LTE Extender sometimes rejects calls and sends them directly to voice mail. 

[mekertzman]

I’m postpaid and always have been.

[vzw_customer_support]

mekertzman, thank you for confirming this information. We are all one team. If you are already working in a Private Message thread there will be no need to start a new one. 

[ssprill]

I mentioned in this thread that I am also experiencing this issue. So I subscribed to this thead.  Why does Verizon take this off the thread in to a PM?  If it was worked on withing the thread it would help people who come to the forum looking for solutions to problems and it would save Verizon a ton of time.

I am guessing that I will never see how this problem was resolved.

[mekertzman]

I'm certainly not an apologist for Verizon, but they sent a private message to ask me personal details, like the physical address of my home/extender.  That's something that shouldn't be asked or answered on a public forum.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello, there. We completely realize how vital it is to have your calls connect, and we are here to help. Can you please send us a Private Message, so we can discuss? 

[mekertzman]

I already have another Private Message exchange going with vzw_customer_support.  I'm not sure whether there are different support people on different threads.  Can you give me some direction?

[vzw_customer_support]

We want to ensure you get the assistance you need, mekertzman. Please send us a Private Note. We will be standing by to assist.

CheyenneS_VZW

[mekertzman]

Once again, I already received a private message from Verizon support.  I replied to it, but haven’t heard anything back from that exchange.  That support seems to have ghosted me, but I keep getting requests like this one to send a private message.   How about replying to the initial private exchange?

[bbanic27]

Mainly incoming for me as well as text msgs 

[vzw_customer_support]

We always want your phone and network extenders working properly. We'd like to see what's going on. Let's get to the bottom of this. Please send us a Private Note for assistance.*Melissa

[KarenCairns]

I am having the exact same problem after getting a network extender. Calls all going to VM w/o ringing on both phones, a Samsung J7 and an Alcatel flip phone.

[ssprill]

Does anyone have a friend or family member that has a Verizon prepaid account?  If so, can your please see if you can add that number into the Extender in your Verizon account details.  To do this go into your account that has the Extender registered to it.  Look at your Verizon devices and find the Extender.  Select "details" at the bottom of the Extender.  Select "Edit" for "Access Type".  Select "Hybrid".  Select "Edit"" for "Access List".  You'll have to add a number on the account first and then add the prepaid number.

The Hybrid  "Access Type" still allows phone numbers not in the list to use the Extender but gives the priority to those in the list.  Closed "Access Type" only allows the numbers in the list to use the Extender and gives them "priority".  A member of this thread stated that using the "Closed" method with some other changes fixed the calls going directly to voice mail issue that this thread is all about.

I have a Prepaid account and can't add my number into the list.

Verizon help??????

[SSweets]

I’m having the same issue, was not aware until family and friends kept saying our phones were going straight to voicemail or not ringing. They would resort to FaceTiming me, because they could not call. I started investigating , I have reset the Network settings, turned off and on WiFi calling, and it’s still hit or miss. They ring right after the Network settings is complete but within that same hour if I call from another number,it’s back to voicemail and not ringing. The only way my phone was ringing or receiving text yesterday was after I put the phones in Airplane mode. The Verizon service in this area is horrible anyway, which is why I have an extender, but this need to be resolved. I’m definitely considering paying off these phones ASAP and switching services at this point. 

[ssprill]

Does anyone on this thread have this working yet?  Bbanic27 - is this working for you 100% of the time????

It appears that Verizon does not care.

If someone from Verizon sees this and offers help please state who you are replying to because Verizon has offered help on this thread dozens of times and we still have not gotten anywhere with a fix for this.

[bbanic27]

---

@ssprill wrote:

Does anyone on this thread have this working yet?  Bbanic27 - is this working for you 100% of the time????

It appears that Verizon does not care.

If someone from Verizon sees this and offers help please state who you are replying to because Verizon has offered help on this thread dozens of times and we still have not gotten anywhere with a fix for this.

---

Hey ssprill,

I haven’t forgotten about you. Yes, my extender is working 100% of the time. I use the closed access setting and open ports with a reserved IP. 

I cannot say I have had the same issues with customer service, “after calling in.” After I have talked to Tier 2 about the problem, they create a ticket and then my issues have been resolved within 3-4 days depending on when I submitted the ticket. 

I actually had one of my issues come back and so I called into customer service. Tier 2 ran through a few things first but they ended up just forwarding my ticket to the engineers and from that point, my problem was fixed within the hour. 

Like, it was a process to get my ticket to the engineers (don’t get me wrong) but they did follow through with my issue. 

In either case. If anyone actually has a ticket number, just call back and reference it. If you don’t then call into Verizon and relay the issue as best you can. Also, sometimes it is how you describe the issue. There’s often times Verizon will lean towards the problem being something other than the Extender. Before you call, you want to be able to replicate the issue and create the problem again showing Verizon very clearly it is the extender. 

Call in using a different device so you can play around with the phone that doesn’t receive calls. If you can, call from a landline because that doesn’t use the extender. Honestly, if you can pull everything (above) off I sincerely doubt Verizon will let your issue go unresolved. Once you have a ticket number you can keep calling about it until the issue is fixed. If it keeps going unresolved, your issue should keep moving up the chain of command.