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!

[mekertzman]

I'm the original poster on this thread.  I've had a few chats online with Verizon support.  They've found things that they thought could be a problem, but I still have the same issue with the phones not ringing and going straight to voicemail.  Also, they abandon the chat sessions and ghost me after that.  Looking at this thread, this is clearly a very widespread and common problem with this product/service, and you would think that Verizon would be treating this like a "hair on fire" problem.  Yet, it seems like Verizon support is treating each one of us as if we are a unique issue and they're troubleshooting it as if they hadn't ever seen it before.  

I have no idea how this can get escalated at Verizon - in most companies, it would have been escalated by now.  If anyone in Verizon support management reads these posts, it's long past time to get the problem fixed for everyone.

[onewhoflew]

And its funny how they just keeping telling you to call Support.  Well when you call support you get ghosted and never hear back.  You come on here, you get a private message and then you get ghosted again!  Verizon how are we supposed to get this issue resolved if you keep abandoning support incidents and forum posts?????

[ssprill]

Mekertzman & Onewhofew -

What you both said are my thoughts exactly.  Can't get support with calls to Verizon and can't get support here for this issue.  What are we supposed to do besides look for a new service provider?  I switched from Sprint to Verizon in January when all of my problems started with the Verizon Extender.  At least Sprint had a separate phone number for their Extender support so I always got an expert who knew all of the ins and outs of them.  I switched to Verizon because the Sprint Extender, which always worked perfectly at my house,  did not support my new iPhone SE 2020. 

[vzw_customer_support]

onewhoflew, I am sorry to hear you feel this way and my apologies for any less than exceptional customer service you may have received. I can assure you that is never our intent. We are definitely not into ghosting our customers, that is not how we do business. I am more than happy to address any concerns you have right here. What exactly is happening with your service?

[bbanic27]

Typical ..

[bbanic27]

Apologies for the above ^^ I thought I was replying to individual responses on the thread.

Ive read through this thread and it terrible that the Verizon engineers haven’t stepped in. As an engineer myself … I know they want to help but getting past the garbage (support) is challenging. 

I also have an extender and have had the same issues. I will say my wife is able to get through with a call from time to time. Ha 

Text messages are significantly delayed as others have previously mentioned. 

im actually going to try and look into a few things now that I’ve see what everyone has tried up until this point. I think the issue is an integration between our ISPs, LTE Extender, and iPhone 12 (specifically). Despite the off chance of older phones having similar symptoms. 

If you want to try yourselves… make sure you’re receiving iMessages from all your addresses (in settings) … you may have to sign out and sign in again for them to populate… make sure all the devices start new conversations from your phone number … turn off text forwarding for the time being .. keep everything isolated 

> allow WiFi calls but turn off cellular roaming

> don’t silence unknown callers 

> announce calls = always 

> lastly, if your connected to the Extender… keep your WiFi turned off unless you’re trying to chrome cast or connect to other devices on your network but for the rest of time ..keep WiFi off because the extender is already connected through your ISP 

Now: 

what I’ll check on is the network configuration settings for connected devices (specifically the extender) 

I know a few of you that have been responding to this thread seem to be using the extender in a business setting… I’m also looking into the possibility of vpn issues and devices management profiles. These could also be an issue 

That’s another good point:

if you have device management or configuration profiles set up on your phone, all that jazz … just get rid of it for the time being 

(keep it isolated) 

anything you can do to just keep it strictly the LTE Extender will help. 

just an FYI … if you remove those profiles or the device management… they sometimes remove any apps associated to management app itself 

for example (Microsoft Authenticator App)

there’s a special self service link I’ll post but basically if you lose your Authentication for Face ID or PIN it allows you to reconnect without needing IT help… saves a garbage load of time

keep your heads up. I admire everyone’s persistence on this. Not to many stick it out this long. We will get this figured out. What I really need is a direct support contact to one of their network engineers. It saves me the hassle of “please unplug your device and wait 10sec before plugging back in” ….   -_-

[ram5thwheel]

I have a Samsung Galaxy and have the same issue as you can see from my previous posts.  It is not specific to just the iPhone or older phones.  Missed several calls yesterday with no missed calls indicated as everyone else has experienced.

Finally pulled the plug on the extender.  Now only 1 bar on signal strength but better than missing calls.  I use in a home (personal) use and not a business environment.  Fortunately my wife (iPhone 12) who works from home uses her work computer and Skype etc to do all conferencing calls and not depend on the extender.

Royal pain in the butt.

[PhilC_ROC]

Verizon, this is a MAJOR problem with real safety implications.  Any suggestions?  I, too, am pulling the plug on my extender for now.  I've chatted with support and done what you advise, but still not working.  

[ssprill]

Again, several new people with this same issue and Verizon still has not fixed it.   Has Verizon contacted the Extender supplier, Askey, to have them look into this issue.  Who knows.  Maybe it has to take a safety issue like PhilC_ROC just mentioned to make national news for Verizon to get serious about getting this fixed.  I have missed calls from family, doctors, car dealers, etc, etc, that think because they did not leave a voice mail and just let it ring a fews times that I have received a missed call notification and I will call them back.  We have ZERO I mean ZERO indication that someone called.  The PM's from Verizon on this thread to provde support have been useless.  I spent two hours on a chat with Verizon on Monday that got nowhere.   They always want to start from scratch.  The first thing I was asked is "has there been an physical or water damage to my Extender".  Seriously!!!  However she did take quite a bit of time to look at this thread to see that we have everything to troubleshoot this.  We were supposed to continue last night but ran into issues getting the chat started.

[bbanic27]

Try going into your ISP settings and find the network extenders IP address. Change the setting to have a reserved IP address 

do the same thing for each phone (although keep the phones WiFi off while connected to the extender, unless trying to connect to a different device on your network ) 

change the LTE Extender setting in Verizon (web browser version) to “Closed Access” only add your personal cell phone numbers. 

Regardless of which phone you have. Make sure you’re device is set up to receive/start conversations from your cell phone number for all devices that are associated to the respective cell number.  

Try manually configuring ports 50, 500, 4500, 53, and 52428 to open. This is done from your ISP settings on your modem/router. 

Also, I know this is frustrating. But check and make sure that the extender is in a location that is allowing you to connect to all available satellites within a 2 satellite tolerance. For example, if you have 12 available. Place the device or antenna in a location that gives minimum of 10 satellites. If 10 are available. Minimum 8, etc. 

Increase the distance between the GPS Antenna and the extender too. Like give it at least 5-10 feet of space between them. You’re given a lot of cable so use it. 

[bbanic27]

SSprill … I read through the thread as well. Sorry this has been going on for so long. Please read the last few comments from me regarding this issue. Page 16-17. 
I think I’ve been having better performance from all the above described. I’m still looking into the ISP settings. Will update later.

[mekertzman]

bbanic27 - I'm sure we all appreciate your efforts and your ideas.  However, the 4G LTE Extender is a CONSUMER product.  It should not require the Verizon subscriber to essentially be a network engineer in order to use the product the way it (theoretically) is intended.  Verizon says that the Extender essentially puts a cell tower in your home.  You should NOT have to change the settings on your phone depending on whether you're in your home or out in the world on their cellular network.  You should NOT have to change the IP settings and port settings from your ISP in order to use the product. 

We'd likely all feel much better if it appeared that Verizon was devoting THEIR engineering resources to diagnosing and fixing the problem.  We have, so far, zero indication of that effort and investment on their part.  I've engaged in more than one "secure chat" with Verizon support and gotten nowhere and then they ghost you.  

Verizon support, we have 17 pages on this thread that should give any engineer a head start in figuring this out.  I'd strongly suggest that you have a Verizon executive or high-level engineer post to this thread BY REAL NAME telling us all what they plan is to fix this widespread problem.  Short of that, I don't think it's worth responding to the vzw_customer_support bots.

[bbanic27]

I see your point. You can choose to try the suggestions I laid out or don’t. There are a lot of behind the curtain issues that need to be resolved that the end user doesn’t see. Believe it or not cellular and internet are simply different. Your Extender doesn’t connect you to the outside world the same way a typical Cellular connection does. Verizon doesn’t invest the same amount of resources to their Extender services as they do for their 5G ultra wide. Otherwise, everyone would have an extender. The issues we are experiencing are due to the server in which it connects. Think about how the signal has to get to where it needs to via the extender, which is connected to your ISP. If your ISP is having server issues that day, what then? How will Verizon help now? By using the LTE Extender you’re introducing factors that don’t come into play when not using the device. 
When you pay for a service, it should work bottom line. I know you don’t care about much of the above and just want your phone calls to come through. As for the suggestions I mentioned. I’ve seen an increase in performance. Try them, or wait for a network engineer. 

[bbanic27]

See here for the ports regarding ISP.

https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-25525/

[mekertzman]

It appears that this support article refers to Samsung Network Extenders.  I believe the network extender we've been chatting about on this thread is made by Askey.  I have no idea if the information here also applies to the Askey unit.

[ram5thwheel]

Unfortunately not true!  Ours is a Samsung with the same issues.  This is a broad issue not specific to one manufacturer. 

[jav6]

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@ram5thwheel wrote:

Unfortunately not true!  Ours is a Samsung with the same issues.  This is a broad issue not specific to one manufacturer. 

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Please quote/identify the post you're replying to so we know how to interpret your response.

[ram5thwheel]

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@jav6 wrote:

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@ram5thwheel wrote:

Unfortunately not true!  Ours is a Samsung with the same issues.  This is a broad issue not specific to one manufacturer. 

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Please quote/identify the post you're replying to so we know how to interpret your response.

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jav6

Sorry but in going back several pages, I saw the reply which allowed my response to show the quote.  I was attempting to reply but was not aware of quote icon.  Corrected that situation.

There was a comment about this thread not specific to Samsung extenders of which I have and experiencing the same issues.  I have been part of thread going back several pages.

[bbanic27]

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@ram5thwheel wrote:

Unfortunately not true!  Ours is a Samsung with the same issues.  This is a broad issue not specific to one manufacturer. 

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Ram5thwheel, 

what exactly have you tried regarding the recommendations to correct the issue? 

>port forwarding for network extender 

>closed access setting

>reserved IP for the network Extender 

>keeping WiFi turned off on phone connected to the extender

>at least 4 satellites are needed to determine location (though separate from call/txt issue) 

///// 

Following up on this. You have been one of the people to have followed this thread the longest. Have you attempted to perform any of the above?

[ram5thwheel]

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@bbanic27 wrote:

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@ram5thwheel wrote:

Unfortunately not true!  Ours is a Samsung with the same issues.  This is a broad issue not specific to one manufacturer. 

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Ram5thwheel, 

what exactly have you tried regarding the recommendations to correct the issue? 

>port forwarding for network extender 

>closed access setting

>reserved IP for the network Extender 

>keeping WiFi turned off on phone connected to the extender

>at least 4 satellites are needed to determine location (though separate from call/txt issue) 

///// 

Following up on this. You have been one of the people to have followed this thread the longest. Have you attempted to perform any of the above?

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I apologize and I am very interested in a solution to this issue. Appreciate bbanic27 all your suggestions. I am currently on a camping vacation away from home for a few weeks so can't try anything. I am, however, monitoring all of you efforts. Thanks and good luck!

[bbanic27]

Here's a support PDF:  Check this out

https://ss7.vzw.com/is/content/VerizonWireless/Catalog%20Assets/Accessories/Verizon/verizon-lte-netw...