Problems with Dropped Calls

Help Me
1

Hi everyone,

Out of the blue starting yesterday - on 5/1/23, I have been experiencing problems with phone calls and text messaging. Whenever I make a phone call, about 20 seconds into the call, the speaker disconnects so I cannot hear the person on the line, but they can hear me. It reconnects again after about 15 seconds, and then I can talk again. This happens a couple of times, and then eventually the call just drops. It happens when I call someone, but it also happens when someone calls me. In addition, my texting has been intermittent. I get a message saying “Not sent, tap to try again.” I have a very strong wifi signal (over 600mbps), so it can’t be a wifi issue. I have poor cell service where I live (only 2-3 bars), but I am always able to talk/text with the “wifi calling” option turned on.

Did something happen with Republic Wireless yesterday that I’m not aware of? I tried to call the support line, but they told me I could not be on my phone and troubleshoot at the same time. I don’t have a landline or another cell phone, so that’s not possible. They don;t seem to have a chat option or an email option either, I have been with RW for many years, since the beginning when they were in beta, but I think it may be time to look for another provider. Does anyone have any troubleshooting ideas to help solve my dropped call problem in the meantime? Is this happening to anyone else? Who would you recommend as a new carrier? I only use 1gb of data every month - I only use my phone for calling/testing. Please let me know - thanks!

2

Hi @DBurnat,
Welcome, as I see you just joined this AM. As none of us have any view/insight into the current network states at Republic (since Dish took over, we need to narrow things down to provide you with any meaningful help

  • Here are some thoughts:
  • Let us know what phone and plan you are on with RW?
  • Is your phone at the latest code level as provided by the manufacturer?
    Things I would suggest you try:
  1. Turn off the WiFi on your phone and make the call that just failed/dropped (2-3 bars is actually considered pretty good) … what did that result in?
  2. 600 MBps, is probably what your paying for, and is not very indicative of the quality your WiFi-connected phone is seeing. Here I would refer you to WiFi Router Tweaks … Perhaps one of your neighbors just added a new router and their signal is causing you problems?
  3. Start there, and let us know what happens or what step you need help with
3

@DBurnat said:
Hi everyone,

Welcome!

@DBurnat said:
Out of the blue starting yesterday - on 5/1/23, I have been experiencing problems with phone calls and text messaging. Whenever I make a phone call, about 20 seconds into the call, the speaker disconnects so I cannot hear the person on the line, but they can hear me. It reconnects again after about 15 seconds, and then I can talk again. This happens a couple of times, and then eventually the call just drops. It happens when I call someone, but it also happens when someone calls me. In addition, my texting has been intermittent. I get a message saying “Not sent, tap to try again.” I have a very strong wifi signal (over 600mbps), so it can’t be a wifi issue. I have poor cell service where I live (only 2-3 bars), but I am always able to talk/text with the “wifi calling” option turned on.

2-3 bars isn’t terrible cellular signal particularly if indoors. I understand why you don’t believe this to be a WiFi involved issue, however, for the sake of isolating the problem, have you tried temporarily turning WiFi on the phone off and testing over cellular? If not, would you please do so and report back?

@DBurnat said:
Did something happen with Republic Wireless yesterday that I’m not aware of?

It’s hard to say given RW no longer publishes service status information but I’m also not seeing other complaints here or elsewhere on the Internet. It might be a local to you problem.

@DBurnat said:
I tried to call the support line, but they told me I could not be on my phone and troubleshoot at the same time. I don’t have a landline or another cell phone, so that’s not possible. They don’t seem to have a chat option or an email option either.

For years members asked Republic to add telephone support but removing chat and/or ticket support when it’s the phone in need of troubleshooting is certainly a questionable approach.

@DBurnat said:
I have been with RW for many years, since the beginning when they were in beta, but I think it may be time to look for another provider.

To the best of my knowledge, everyone here is or was a Republic member also. Some still do business with Republic, some have moved on to other providers and some, like me, have always done business with other providers and Republic simultaneously.

@DBurnat said:
Does anyone have any troubleshooting ideas to help solve my dropped call problem in the meantime?

More information would help us better help you:

  1. What is your location (zip code only)?
  2. What is the brand, model and (if applicable) generation of the involved phone?
  3. Which Republic plan are you using, RW 5.0 or legacy My Choice?

@DBurnat said:
Who would you recommend as a new carrier?

This too is location dependent. Do you know which of the three national networks (AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon) has reasonably robust coverage in your area?

@DBurnat said:
I only use 1gb of data every month - I only use my phone for calling/texting.

Do you use all of that 1 GB? If not, how much do you use?

@DBurnat said:
Please let me know - thanks!

You’re welcome!

4

I’ve been experiencing dropped calls ever since migrating from RW to Boost. It happens with multiple correspondents so I’m pretty sure the problem is on my end.

Typically a 30 minute call will drop a couple of times,

I’m connecting to the same AT&T tower I was connecting to with RW.

The problem persisted through at least 2 security upgrades to my S21 +5G

I have a very strong signal.

Wi-Fi calling is turned off.

Anyone else experience this after migrating to Boost? Any ideas on fixing this?

5

What does speed (up and down), latency, and retransmission look like at the times this is occurring? Here’s a test you can run from the phone’s web browser:
https://speed.measurementlab.net/#/

There’s probably not much you can do about it since it’s strictly a cellular occurrence (other than contact support and pray). If you have a reddit account here’s a link to send a message to BoostInfiniteBlake. That reddit account seems to lead to more competent Boost Infinite customer service.

6

Thanks for your help! I ran the test 3 times. Up nominally 50, Down nominally 30, Latency nominally 19 ms.

Retransmission results were 14.4%, .02% and 0%.

Just before running these tests I called a friend and we had our 1st disconnect after 5 minutes and then our 2nd disconnect 5 minutes after reconnecting.

Boost pushed something to my phone they said might help but obviously it didn’t.

7

Looks better than what I usually see on cellular, other than that one high retransmission %.

8

I’ve been thinking about moving my SIM to my A32 5G to see if calls are dropped with it too but I worry that this will upset Boost’s fragile infrastructure. I did it for a while with RW and did have to make a few changes when I moved it back. What do you think?

9

I don’t think it should be a problem, but I’m not Boost Infinite savvy. I guess you need the Boost Infinite and Boost Config app these days?

10

Boost passed the problem on to AT&T. They said there was a registration problem with my phone. The pushed something to it and then reregistered it on their end. I thought they had fixed the phone after several long calls without the usual drops but then I did have another drop today. The phone stayed connected during the second, 30 minute call with that person.

1 Like
11

I’m convinced that Boost Infinite customer care will say nearly anything to end a service call quickly.