iPhone 4 and 4S

[darkone338]

I'm having a problem with my service, which i believe is being caused by a local fault with one of the masts serving my area as this problem only started about 3 weeks ago and only happens when im at home. After an indeterminate amount of time, (but at least 2-3 times a day) despite my phone showing descent signal i'll not be able to make an outgoing call (and incoming calls will be sent directly to voicemail). After a moment or two, the phone will switch to "Searching...." and will then connect to the network again and all will function fine again. Again, I do not believe this is a phone issue. It does not happen when i move out of my home area. Ive also been roaming in the USA and Europe in the last 10 days and have not had the same problem happen. I have checked the faults board but nothing on there is listed for my area. (an adjacent post code did have a most problem but its marked as fixed). I'd appreciate some help with this, its driving me nuts! PS: yes i have rebooted a number of times!

[Andy]

Hi darkone338,

Please try the steps in our Network Troubleshooting thread.

If you are still experiencing the issue having completed these steps, post the template with your answers here and I'll have a member of the team get back to you ASAP.

Thanks

Andy

Moderator

[darkone338]

1). Does the issue happen in just one location?

Yes

2). Does the issue occur if you try your SIM card in a different phone?

I have no other phone with microsim to try it in.

3). Can you check your coverage here? Please bear in mind that this is only a guideline and can never be 100% accurate, particularly for indoor coverage.

yep. my location is in the best service level for both calls and internet.

4). Can you check our Faults Board, which contains all the mast issues we’re aware of.

Nothing found in there.

5). Does this issue happen on 2G/3G or both. To check this, you can amend your phone's network settings, our Help Centre contains all the instructions, just select your model of phone and then select "network".

I have no way of forcing connection to 2G on the 4S

6). What is the full postcode of where the issue occurs (if you’re uncomfortable with this appearing on the forum, then please add it to your profile by clicking “My eForum Settings” on the front page and then selecting “Personal Information”

Updated my profile.

7). How far you have to travel to get signal as soon I am normally receiving a signal. The problem seems to be intermittent. I can happily use the phone for hours then i'll leave it a while and the problem may occur. ive not done any scientific testing as to exactly how far from home the problem stops occuring.

8). Do you get any error messages/tones if you’re having problems with calling/texting

Nope, just the phone display switching to Searching.... If I dont keep checking the device i would never notice.

[Lee]

Hey darkone338,

Thanks for your post about signal in your locality.

The site that serves you profile postcode is referenced 77696 and I've had a look at the statistics and they look absolutely fine to me. It's situated by the roundabout next to the railway line not far from you and I've checked for any cases and there's nothing to suggest there's an issue.

Could you dial *#105# into the dialler and let me know what dates are displayed for both PS and CS? Ideally both dates need to be within the last 24 hours so if they're older than that then a manual roam will help refresh your connection to the network.

Let me know how you get on.

Cheers,

Lee

[darkone338]

hi lee,

i know that site well tho im suprised thats my local site... i only get 3 bars (same as my old blackberry) and can see the site by the railway line from my window..

Anyhow, CS and PS times are 17/2/2012 19:18:54

Regards

[darkone338]

without distracting from my original issue.. interestingly the Ofcom sitefinder shows 2 base stations local to be by Vodafone, neither of which are the ones by the railway line
Operator Site Ref: 36464 - Summit Avenue

The 2 on the roundabout are shown as 3 and O2 sites....

[Dave]

Hi darkone338,

Both of the sites, 36464 and 77696 - the one Lee identified - are Vodafone sites, although the latter is 3G only. Being nearer, the local signal is primarily provided by 77696, however the coverage area for 36464 does come quite close, and may well provide secondary 3G signal in the general area as well as your 2G.

I can see that there is some work currently underway on 36464, so this may be having a knock on effect as the other sites look to pick up its traffic. We'll be looking to get this completed as quickly as possible to get the signal back in full flow.

Dave

[mobing]

---

Dave wrote:

Hi darkone338,

Both of the sites, 36464 and 77696 - the one Lee identified - are Vodafone sites, although the latter is 3G only. Being nearer, the local signal is primarily provided by 77696, however the coverage area for 36464 does come quite close, and may well provide secondary 3G signal in the general area as well as your 2G.

I can see that there is some work currently underway on 36464, so this may be having a knock on effect as the other sites look to pick up its traffic. We'll be looking to get this completed as quickly as possible to get the signal back in full flow.

Dave

thanks for your sharng !

---

[darkone338]

hi any ideas when this is going to be fixed ? Its been 3 weeks now and its becoming embarassing. I work from home a lot and rely on the phone to be working. Right now, (today) i have received 1 incoming call and 7 have gone straight to answerphone. Ive picked up the phone 3 times in the past 2 hours to make a call and the display has switched to 'Searching....." I'd rather not have to go drive up the road and sit in the car for the rest of the day to work, just to get a reliable service. I appreciate things go wrong sometimes, but this is rediculous.....

[darkone338]

and twice again since my last post...... "searching...."

[darkone338]

i will again note, this does not happen when i go into london, or when i was roaming on eas&west usa, in germany, switzerland or anywhere else but here in Farnborough....

[darkone338]

and again... "Searching....."

[darkone338]

and again...

[darkone338]

and again......

[DaveCD]

Hi darkone338

Thank you for your posts and a I understand this is causing you frustration.

Unfortunately it can take time to resolve a site issue, we often have to obtain permission to access the site, then we may need to obtain specialist equipment to reach the affected area before an investigation can begin, after this we may need to order or manufacture parts before we can fit them and test them.

Many Thanks

DaveCD

eForum Team

[darkone338]

Thanks Dave, as you can see, right now the frequency of the problem is casuing me a real problem.
Can VF offer anything to help ? The loan of a Suresignal or something to overcome this problem ?

[DaveCD]

Hi darkone338

Thank you for your post.

Unfortunately we are unable to loan a Sure Signal as if we were to do this for every customer with a signal issue this would prove incredibly costly, and as we are aware of the issue our engineers are working hard to get this back up and running.

You can purchase a Sure Signal should you desire from your local store or our website.

Many Thanks

DaveCD

efForum Team

[quincemeister]

hi, i have just had this issue with my iphone 4s and i was advised that the antennas in the 4s were not switching over automatically from 3g to 2g , so was advised this was a hardware fault in the phone ,Apple stated they had never heard of this however they replaced the phone. when i got home i had a perfecrt 2g signal (edge) instead of no service or searching all the time, the mast is still having a problem where i am ....that is Oldham up north, but until the mast had problems i would never have known about this issue. iphone 4 and 3gs can switch manually if required but 4s is automatic, no idea why Apple took the option off. if you can get someone else with a 4s to try in your house it may show ok on theirs....worth a try as it could be your phone the same as mine, after all they had probs with the iphone 4. this does not excuse vodafone from fixing their masts by the way....

[darkone338]

hi Dave,

thanks for your reply. Of course i realise loaners aren't really a possibility, my comment was born out of frustration..

I do like the solution tho... pay for one.. that made me chuckle for obvious reasons..

to QM: im not sure how a problem that only happens in one spot can be attributed to hardware. surely you'd expect this to happen frequently in many locations ?