Re: [PLUG] Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality

There have been a lot of good pieces of advice in here about this. The problem is not related to volte, as that service is slow to roll out and not every carrier/tower is going to be doing it. As others have said, I would test in a clear area while stationary, and I would also try a different device.

You said your carrier is Net-10, but who is the actual provider? Is it att, Sprint or T-Mobile? You stated its an S3 and that's a fairly older phone, but there are plenty of cheap android phones that you can pick up, make a test call and then verify if its the phone or the carrier.

If you make a test call, and its not the phone, then I would immediately get on the phone with Net-10 and state that you are having call quality issues. State your location (this is where being mobile, even inside your house helps), what steps you've taken to reproduce the issue and let them know its carried over to voicemail. As a tester for cell service, I have gone into customer's homes with equipment and tested.

However, I will also say that it's not likely the carrier. Net-10 is usually backed by one of the big 3, namely T-Mobile, at&t or Verizon. I would recommend backing up your phone and then factory defaulting it and testing with it that way.

If you need help offlist, you can find me at Google hangouts via the email I sent this from.

On Sep 19, 2015 11:50, <plug-request@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality (Casey Bralla)
2. Re: Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality (jeff)
3. @OSHWA (Rachel Rawlings)
4. Re: Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality (Keith C. Perry)
5. Re: Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality (Tim Binder)
6. Re: Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality (Chris Grabowy)
7. Re: @OSHWA (Guo Yixuan)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 09:04:57 -0400
From: Casey Bralla <MailList@nerdworld.org>
To: PLUG Philadelphia Linux Users Group <PLUG@lists.phillylinux.org>
Subject: [PLUG] Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality
Message-ID: <55490591.oVQ0ub1aql@m5>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I'm finally reaching the limit of my cell phone tolerance. The voice call
quality of my cell phone is terrible, and almost unusable.

I suffer from frequent tenth-second drop-outs which make it very hard to
understand what is being said. I don't know if its my phone, my carrier, or my
location. I was hoping I could get some good advice from this techo-group.

I know it is not the other caller, because I even have the problem listening
to my voicemail menu.

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S3, which appears to be a good quality phone.

I'm using Net-10, one of the pre-paid carriers. Their prices are pretty good.

My location is in NJ east of Philly, and PA, just north of Newark. Both
locations seem to be equally bad.

So how can I isolate the cause of my crappy voice calls?

Is my carrier?
Is it my phone?

If I switch carriers will my quality improve?

I'm a 58-year-old guy, and not looking for gobs of data, but I can't see
spending $75 per month for a bloody phone.

Any suggestions?

--
Casey Bralla

Chief Nerd in Residence
The NerdWorld Organisation

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 10:52:59 -0400
From: jeff <jeffv@op.net>
To: Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality
Message-ID: <55FD76CB.3010302@op.net">55FD76CB.3010302@op.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

Guess: check the phone's cpu/memory stats. Might be too busy doing other
stuff. I had one but it was pretty well behaved.

Does it do this on wifi too?

Good luck.

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 11:11:40 -0400
From: Rachel Rawlings <rachelneko@gmail.com>
To: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List"
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
Subject: [PLUG] @OSHWA
Message-ID:
<CACta1dOUqyyWMbRQUZW+N3921-BkGeYjPtNSMqn0vY-+J+esaw@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

if you're here, let's find one another during the coffee break. If not,
here's the live stream: http://ustre.am/1riMc
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Message: 4
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 11:31:11 -0400
From: "Keith C. Perry" <kperry@daotechnologies.com>
To: Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality
Message-ID: <b4c27c29-d512-40e3-81af-c154f1e3751b@email.android.com">b4c27c29-d512-40e3-81af-c154f1e3751b@email.android.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Very hard thing to deal with and the truth of the matter is that its a dynamic problem- wireless, carrier, handset and environment all have to be optimum to actually provide acceptable calls.

>From what you describe it sounds like a carrier issue or an issue with the S3 on your carrier. Handset - carrier integration is one the bigger issues these days. There are a couple of things you can try.

1) Try a call in an open area while stationary on a clear day - Attempt that in places that you frequent. This will help determine general carrier coverage. This is only one side of the equation so also...

2) Drop your handset down to its lowest capability mode - For instance, on Sprint that mean 3G. Whatever that is for Net-10 its going to be the "slowest" mode and least data capable (lowest bandwidth). This will help determine how your device does on the carrier network with the most basic mode supported.

3) Call LAN lines or a voice / music service off the network - Calls that stay within the mobile network may not be processed the same. When calls have to handed off to other carriers I've found they can sound better. One of the things I do when I have bad mobile connection is switch to my business line. It may sound surprising but a VoIP call over a VPN via my PBX often sounds better than a direct mobile call. Which leads me to my last point...

4) Try another voice call technology - A traditional VoIP deployment is overkill for a test but you can do voice calls through Google hangouts, fring, skype and other services these days. That may actually provide the best experience. You would be using data but the good thing is that voice uses very little data.

---
KP

On Sep 19, 2015 9:04 AM, Casey Bralla <MailList@nerdworld.org> wrote:
>
> I'm finally reaching the limit of my cell phone tolerance. The voice call
> quality of my cell phone is terrible, and almost unusable.
>
> I suffer from frequent tenth-second drop-outs which make it very hard to
> understand what is being said. I don't know if its my phone, my carrier, or my
> location. I was hoping I could get some good advice from this techo-group.
>
> I know it is not the other caller, because I even have the problem listening
> to my voicemail menu.
>
> I've got a Samsung Galaxy S3, which appears to be a good quality phone.
>
> I'm using Net-10, one of the pre-paid carriers. Their prices are pretty good.
>
> My location is in NJ east of Philly, and PA, just north of Newark. Both
> locations seem to be equally bad.
>
>
> So how can I isolate the cause of my crappy voice calls?
>
> Is my carrier?
> Is it my phone?
>
>
> If I switch carriers will my quality improve?
>
>
> I'm a 58-year-old guy, and not looking for gobs of data, but I can't see
> spending $75 per month for a bloody phone.
>
>
> Any suggestions?
>
>
> --
> Casey Bralla
>
> Chief Nerd in Residence
> The NerdWorld Organisation
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group???????? --??????? http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion? --?? http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 11:32:09 -0400
From: Tim Binder <tbinder@coredial.com>
To: Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality
Message-ID: <72F7F9A7-1977-4384-A622-ABFC1700A265@coredial.com">72F7F9A7-1977-4384-A622-ABFC1700A265@coredial.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Are you using Voice over LTE (VoLTE)? For my admittedly different phone I found that turning it off and just using LTE for data significantly improved my sound dropout issues. Perhaps worth investigating?

> On Sep 19, 2015, at 9:04 AM, Casey Bralla <MailList@nerdworld.org> wrote:
>
> I'm finally reaching the limit of my cell phone tolerance. The voice call
> quality of my cell phone is terrible, and almost unusable.
>
> I suffer from frequent tenth-second drop-outs which make it very hard to
> understand what is being said. I don't know if its my phone, my carrier, or my
> location. I was hoping I could get some good advice from this techo-group.
>
> I know it is not the other caller, because I even have the problem listening
> to my voicemail menu.
>
> I've got a Samsung Galaxy S3, which appears to be a good quality phone.
>
> I'm using Net-10, one of the pre-paid carriers. Their prices are pretty good.
>
> My location is in NJ east of Philly, and PA, just north of Newark. Both
> locations seem to be equally bad.
>
>
> So how can I isolate the cause of my crappy voice calls?
>
> Is my carrier?
> Is it my phone?
>
>
> If I switch carriers will my quality improve?
>
>
> I'm a 58-year-old guy, and not looking for gobs of data, but I can't see
> spending $75 per month for a bloody phone.
>
>
> Any suggestions?
>
>
> --
> Casey Bralla
>
> Chief Nerd in Residence
> The NerdWorld Organisation
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 11:45:23 -0400
From: Chris Grabowy <cgrabowy@gmail.com>
To: "'Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List'"
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality
Message-ID: <02f701d0f2f2$32f68ad0$98e3a070$@gmail>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Is there a SIM card in your particular phone?

If so then perhaps you can swap SIM cards with another person on another
carrier?

This might help determine if the carrier is the problem.

-----Original Message-----
From: plug [mailto:plug-bounces@lists.phillylinux.org] On Behalf Of Casey
Bralla
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2015 9:05 AM
To: PLUG Philadelphia Linux Users Group
Subject: [PLUG] Off-topic: Cell Phone Call Quality

I'm finally reaching the limit of my cell phone tolerance. The voice call
quality of my cell phone is terrible, and almost unusable.

I suffer from frequent tenth-second drop-outs which make it very hard to
understand what is being said. I don't know if its my phone, my carrier, or
my location. I was hoping I could get some good advice from this
techo-group.

I know it is not the other caller, because I even have the problem listening
to my voicemail menu.

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S3, which appears to be a good quality phone.

I'm using Net-10, one of the pre-paid carriers. Their prices are pretty
good.

My location is in NJ east of Philly, and PA, just north of Newark. Both
locations seem to be equally bad.

So how can I isolate the cause of my crappy voice calls?

Is my carrier?
Is it my phone?

If I switch carriers will my quality improve?

I'm a 58-year-old guy, and not looking for gobs of data, but I can't see
spending $75 per month for a bloody phone.

Any suggestions?

--
Casey Bralla

Chief Nerd in Residence
The NerdWorld Organisation
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug

------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 11:44:08 -0400
From: Guo Yixuan <culu.gyx@gmail.com>
To: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List"
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
Subject: Re: [PLUG] @OSHWA
Message-ID:
<CAEwKtzi5=d-nssFymPZxZ=Cfjfi6KmUnUx2Z0DSfje_-7S6_qg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

I'm also here!

Yixuan
On Sep 19, 2015 11:11 AM, "Rachel Rawlings" <rachelneko@gmail.com> wrote:

> if you're here, let's find one another during the coffee break. If not,
> here's the live stream: http://ustre.am/1riMc
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group --
> http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements -
> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion --
> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>
>
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