Why are conversations breaking up on my Droid Maxx?

[shkc]

Our 1.5 year old Droid Maxx is occasionally breaking up.  Just started within the last week or two.  Systen is up to date.  We are in sight of a Verizon tower, less than two miles away, but the 4g service occasionally drops to 3g with 1 or 2 bars.  Our month old Maxx 2 shows fluctuations in 3g4g and signal strength, but we haven't experienced our conversations breaking up on it.  Also, it seems to revert to 4g and 3-4 bars much faster than the older phone.

What gives?  

BTW, wifi and BT are off.

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

[Ann154]

Have you rebooted the phone recently to reestablish the network connection between the phone and the network?

[DigitalRules]

Do you know if you making a VoLTE call, or standard CDMA? If you're not sure you can check in the settings menu;

-More

-Mobile Networks

-VoLTE-ON OR OFF ?

[shkc]

I've cleared the cache and rebooted.   Haven't tested yet.Thanks.

[shkc]

Don't have access to phone at the moment, but believe it is CDMA. 

What do you think about the variability in the signal?  If it were raining in buckets, or a lot of electrical activity, I wouldn't question this, but having the signal vary in a static location seems weird to me.

[shkc]

"Correct Answer" has its own mysteries.  Sorry.

[DigitalRules]

CDMA can break up even if close to a tower. I can hear a little break up at times with a tower right across the street. Are you just getting some break up, or dropping calls? Have you tried making a call with VoLTE turned on?

[shkc]

My phone is not set to CDMA, it is set to Global.  I don't think I did that and I suspect it happened during a recent update.  I don't see a VoLTE option, except perhaps in conjunction with CDMA.  Sometimes one party can hear the other, but can't be heard.  Hard to say if the phone drops the connection, or the other party throws in the towel and hangs up.

The physical arrangement of our phones and the tower has not changed, so I'm inclined to believe that some recent updates may have played a part in this problem.

I spent an hour or more on the chat line this afternoon.  At the end of the session, the rep suggested trying a new sim card.  Why?

At this point, I expect to be told that I'll have to get a new phone.  Since we are retired, the phones are hardly abused.  Do they really fail so often?

[Ann154 · Accepted solution]

Change the network mode to CDMA/LTE mode. Your phone might not be compatible of HD Voice.

[DigitalRules]

Surprised chat didn't walk you through some of this after over an hour? Wonder what they are smoking????

As Ann mentioned, first set the phone to CDMA/LTE, NOT Global.

Your phone is in fact VoLTE capable, but it had/has to be activated on your account at some point. Call customer service if you can't turn it on under the "Mobile Networks" section of the settings menu. If LTE coverage is decent in the areas you travel, VoLTE may possibly give you a better call experience than CDMA.

Let us know your findings.