Voice calls use 2G - poor quality

[#1]

At home my phone shows solid 3 bars of '4G'. But I've noticed recently I'm getting terrible quality on voice calls.

I happened to look at the phone during such a call and saw it was showing 2 bars on 2G.

I don't care what the technology is so long as it works but I'm getting really hopeless call quality. Audio is distorted and often drops out for a second or 2.

What can I do to improve my call quality?

[#2]

Hi markv,

Thanks for getting in touch with us!

Signal fluctuation is a common occurrence and it can be affected by many different factors such as, the density of building materials, tree cover, weather conditions and how many people are using the network. 

You can try re-booting the handset by performing the following:

• Turn the handset off
• Take the SIM card out
• Leave it for a couple of minutes
• Replace the SIM card
• Turn the handset back on

It's important to remove the SIM from the handset entirely to ensure that it disconnects, and establishes a new connection to the network upon re-boot. 

I would also advise to pop over to https://myaccount.ee.co.uk/networkchecker/checkservice and input your postcode to the check the area for any issues. 

- Rebeka 

[#3]

//the reason for it changing to 2G is that calls can't be made over 4G, so your phone will drop you down to the next best available, which in this instance is 2G (as presumably not 3G, or at least an even worse 3G, signal is available).

[#4]

Hi Rebeka,

Did the full reboot (including battery out). No improvement.

The EE service checker says no problems in my postcode.

But the EE coverage checker does show 'Outdoor only' for a small area surrounding my house (strangely the area is a different shape for 2G, 3G and 4G, but all of them are Outdoor only.

Interestingly, London is absolutely full of 'holes' of Outdoor only on EE whereas O2 and Voda are solid. So much for the name!

Looks like I'm on the wrong network for my location. It's become a pain because I dropped Anytime landline calls thinking I could use the mobile. And now I see that if I want to reinstate Anytime landline, the price has gone up a few pounds a month 😞

Mark

[#5]

Hi pjmarsh,

Thanks but I don't think that's the case here as the 3G is at least as strong as 2G.

I did wonder if using a low-cost VMNO results in more likely to be downgraded from 3G to 2G for voice. So as to keep the higher quality service for higher-paying EE customers.

Mark

p.s. I see EE do offer '4G Calling'  - haven't checked to see if Plusnet do.

p.p.s. My phone supports WiFi calling, but again not sure if Plusnet offer that

[#6]

I'm sorry markv, but we don't offer 4G calling, our 4G frequency band applies to data only. 

We also don't support the WiFi calling function however, this suggestion has been fed back to the relevant department.

- Rebeka 

[#7]

Thanks again Rebeka. Now that I have seen the EE coverage map showing my house is 'Outdoor only', I will be switching to another network. No choice.

I did try setting my phone to maximum 3G (not 4G). That resulted in being on 'E' (is that 2G Edge) all day. Very late tonight it switched back to 3G, probably because all the full-paying EE customers had gone to sleep and freed up bandwidth for us cheapskates.