What can we do about this phone problem?

[Isabel H]

In recent weeks when one of our older friends makes calls from her Samsung Galaxy 23 Ultra phone she can hear the person answer but they can’t hear anything at all. A second attempt sometimes succeeds.  This also happens the other way round when she receives calls.

Sound is ok on other apps on her phone, which she relies heavily on, because it connects by Bluetooth to her hearing aids. The hearing aid supplier and Currys have said the aids/app/phone are all working correctly, and nothing we’ve tried has made any difference.

Then yesterday, another friend happened to call our landline from an i-phone, and the same thing happened. She didn’t hear a ring tone on her first attempt, and at our end the call was silent except for a click as she hung up. So it appears not to be an individual phone problem after all, as it is happening with various combinations of landlines/mobiles/networks.

We don’t know where to go from here.  Any ideas, please?

[HarryW]

It could be all manner of things.   I would suggest a first attempt should be made by contacting your telephony provider and discussing the problem.   From an engineering standpoint, its one of the worst types of report to get - Intermittent!   I have a feeling that they will likely say they can find nothing wrong.   It's worth a try though.   

To be honest, I have had exactly the same thing and because of my background in telecoms, I actually proved the fault to one mobile aerial over a period of time - getting the mobile company to investigate was quite another thing.

Also it sounds like there are two distinct and separate faults - the incoming to your phone and the incoming to your friend's mobile.  Your friend's incoming call problem is something they will need to discuss with their provider i'm afraid.

[scotmum]

Have a look at this Samsung support thread http://www.rootschat.com/links/01seg/. Those posting have had similar issues to your friend, and indications are a hardware issue is causing the problems.

[Ian Nelson]

What's missing here is a good ol' conspiracy theory.
For years I have used Samsung, the last 2 were Galaxys, the last an otherwise brilliant GT-S5839i, until I got a landline call from a great nephew asking why I hadn't replied to his texts about my car repairs.  I never received them ... I visited him and checked his mobile, he definitely had everything correct.   Then my daughter who is in touch with me every day and is also on the 3 network said she had phoned and texted several times without me replying.   After inquiries I was told my old Samsung was not suitable for 4G and 3G was prone to dropouts due to the impending changeover.   
So I bought a German / Chinese ZTE super smart phone, at least it's smarter than me, and everything worked fine for a week or so ... then my daughter rang the landline ( it's getting removed very soon anyway ) and said I hadn't returned her texts.  So it's not the phone, it's the 3 Network, their town centre mast is masked by tree growth and probably the wrong kind of leaves on the rail lines.
Unfortunately the ZTE can't distinguish Text Message Incoming Tones from Facebook, Gmail, Amazon and his dog so I made it worse by choosing a very pleasant birdsong which might be a bit silly as the songbirds are out in force in my garden, so I now just ignore the phone and have issued orders to those who wish to communicate with me to Ring / Call when they send a text but don't wait for an answer .. but at least I'll know I've had a text message.
The ZTE has an interesting feature, to answer the phone I merely have to lift it to my ear.   I'm puzzled as to how a phone can recognise my ear, until I remember the Facial recognition and Reconstruction Software in use everywhere and that completes my theory ...
AI (Artificial Intelligence) is out to get us - in fact - it has got us.
watch what you say - somebody is listening, and recording, just ask Boris
cheers, Ian

[Isabel H]

Thank you all for your input.

I had found the Samsung support thread, and similar, but the advice didn’t solve the problem.

It could well be to do with a local phone mast, so it looks as if we need to contact the network provider.  First however, we’re going to lend our friend a phone to find out whether or not the problem still occurs when using it.

Discontinuation of landlines is a worry when Scotland has a lot of areas where mobile reception is poor or non-existent.

Isabel

[HarryW]

Thank you all for your input.

I had found the Samsung support thread, and similar, but the advice didn’t solve the problem.

It could well be to do with a local phone mast, so it looks as if we need to contact the network provider.  First however, we’re going to lend our friend a phone to find out whether or not the problem still occurs when using it.

Discontinuation of landlines is a worry when Scotland has a lot of areas where mobile reception is poor or non-existent.



Isabel

Landlines are not being discontinued.   They will still be provided but using fibre optics rather than copper wires.  There are all kinds of other problems that this change could potentially bring but that's not for this thread.