Pixel 3xl drops calls after half hour

[Jengoddard]

My pixel 3xl drops every call (made or received) after exactly 29 minutes and 50 seconds. I don't know if this is related to phone settings, network or what so wondered if anyone had had similar issues or knew of a fix. It's a real pain in the backside as currently working from home and means I get cut off in every conference call!

[Skodaboy66]

Hi 'Lord-Snooty'. Have you tried 02? They now use the same infrastructure and masts as Vodafone do (rarely publicised), so coverage should be identical. I live out in the sticks, and Vodafone used to be the only network with good coverage here. I tried a PAYG O2 sim recently and their signal strength is now identical to Vodafone's. 02's website says my phone won't support 4g calling, as it's not from them, but I don't think that's correct, as I know it does 4g calls, but only to 29:50 on Vodafone. I didn't get 4g calling enabled by O2, so I didn't get to confirm it before my £10 expired, though. I'm planning to move to them, anyway, as they're cheaper and still offer free roaming in Europe. You might want to get a PAYG SIM from them and bung a tenner on it, just to see if it works in your area. I'm pretty sure you will need to ring them for the 4g calls though, as the SIM i got was on 3g calls by default. All the best.

[Lord_Snooty]

Thanks @Skodaboy66 . That's  really good advice. I purchased a 3 PAYG SIM yesterday and had dissapointing results.

I'll definitely get an O2 SIM and roadtest that-thanks again

However an odd occurence yesterday

My Oppo phone had a 'July' update

I've made a few calls since and they don't cut out at 29m50s

I'll test this more thoroughly over the weekend and report my findings

Very odd

[KayleighH]

So this is probably going to sound very stupid, but I will ask the question anyway!

How do you know whether your phone is using 4g or 3g network when making a call? With my Poco X4 you can't choose a 4g only preferred network type it's either 5g/4g/3g/2g auto, 4g/3g/2g auto, 3g/2g auto or 2g only. 

I'm assuming that my phone was using 4g calling and then would cut out after 29 mins 50 secs but what I don't understand then is why would it just not revert back to a 3g call after that length of time if somewhere in Vodafone's settings they have something weird going on? 

I am limited to what network I can use as I need coverage in a place in the country where my OH's Mum lives. Vodafone or Voxi was my preferred choice because the reception in good there and the bundle that I have is a very good price, especially for data which is mainly what I use. 

I don't tend to make many long calls, but I also feel a bit miffed that I am paid for a 5g phone so that hopefully when this is rolled out to more areas I would be able to use this, but not even being able to use 4g and with Voda planning to turn off 3g, I'm a bit annoyed. I know my OH's O2 sim works at her Mum's but it looks like my phone is not supported for 4g/WiFi calling on O2. 

Also I did speak to Vodafone and @mdc1983uk I believe you did too and I am assuming you gave your phone details to them. I am wondering if that's why our IMEI's are showing as not supported as they have now added them to the "blacklist". It's all very frustrating. The work around right now is fine for me using 3g calling as, like I said, I don't make too many calls, but I fear 2g might not be particularly very good. 😕

[mdc1983uk]

@KayleighHThe easiest way to tell is turn WiFi off and have mobile data on, that brings the symbol back on the top of the screen 5G, 4G are obvious. H, H+, U or 3G are different standards of 3G and G or E are plain old 2G.  If that doesn't work look or you want more detail goto Settings, About phone, All specs, Status, SIM status for whichever slot you are using while on call. That will tell you a mobile voice and data network type in detail, GSM=2G, UMTS=3G.

The reason it doesn't drop back to 3G I believe is because our phones just time out from the network. On 4G/5G there's a server called the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem if you want to look it up on Wikipedia) and i'm sure that's where the problem lies. It either kicks our phones off for not doing something (think along the lines of renewing a IP address, a message saying yes i'm still here and still want to be connected) or the server isn't renewing something to our phones so they are dropping the call - it's impossible to tell which for us but in theory Voda should be able to tell from their logs if they knew where to look. It really can't be that hard to do a search for all numbers with more than 2 or 3 calls that last exactly 29:50-29:51 (on bill it can show as either) and then reach out to all those customers - if they were seriously trying to fix the issue. They prefer to blame our phones but i've already proven to them that my phone was ok until June and from billing records narrowed it down to a block of 7 days for them when it started.  Something changed to suddenly make it unsupported and the onus is on them to revert it back.  It's scary how other people have taken out new contracts and then used their old phone without the problem and they still deny it being an account/network issue for us.

The IMS is used because back in the 2G/3G days all phone calls used what's called circuit switched - similar to landlines one call/number per physical line. 4G specifically VoLTE/VoWiFi brought in packet switched calling where the phone call is actually treated like data so they can push many many calls through a single line without needed a dedicated circuit for each.  If you still have access to WiFi calling turn that on, stick your phone into airplane mode then turn just the WiFi back on. This will force the phone to use WiFi calling because it has no mobile service and you'll see that even though there isn't a 4G signal in sight that the call will stop drop at 29:50! And it's no coincidence that WiFi calling is another feature that's run by the IMS server.

My next plan is to get my daughter's new phone direct from Voda and get one of these dodgy model's direct and try my SIM in that and see if her SIM cuts off in my phone. Or might just go into the local store and ask to test out one of their demonstrator phones with my SIM and see if it still cuts first.

[PayPro]

@mdc1983uk, your IMS theory sounds extremely plausible but why would this only affect outbound traffic? Certainly in my experience inbound calls are unaffected by the 29:50 issue.

[PayPro]

I’ve just tested @mdc1983uk's suggestion and put my Sony Xperia 1 III into airplane mode and turned WiFi back on to make a test WiFi call and it dropped at 30 minutes 5 seconds. Interesting….?

[mdc1983uk]

@PayProNo idea, maybe inbound calls are setup in a different way or go through a different server. It makes no sense at the best of times.

ADD just saw your 2nd post - did it take a few extra seconds to connect the call? My WiFi calls drop exactly at 29:50 still but i'm on full FTTP 100up/100down.  They still drop just the same though lol.

They are insistant that manufacturers need to release a patch to fix this issue.  But this makes a complete joke out of the people who have taken out 2nd contracts and put new SIM into same old phones and then been unaffected - of course there is no answer to that as the process of elimination rules out the phone as the problem.  But then they also believe that by same customer putting affected SIM into another phone and not having the problem rules out the SIM card/account/network and makes it 100% a phone problem.  It's a neverending vicious circle and almost like these so called fixes aren't actually fixes but more of a make things compatible with our bug rather than fix the bug - and it's understadable why many manufacturers will not want to entertain this logic. First rule of software engineering is fix bugs not introduce workarounds which then may break things for other people later.

I made these points to resolution manager and also the fact selling things with a known problem is actually illegal under UK law.  As it is such a widespead and ongoing problem we could be looking at negligent sales. I have been compensated quite generously actually, I won't say by exactly how much but it's well worth escalating, reescalating and explaining the facts from this thread.  Never let them turn off 4G calling from there end because then you fall into the trap of it's been fixed, just continue to change network mode yourself if you need to be on a long call and allow those ones to friends/family to keep dropping out.  Keep reiterating that you pay for 5G service where available and do not want to be on 2/3G unless there is no 4/5G signal. They compensate for dropped calls and also for misinformation given by customer service reps like unneeded factory resets and disconnect/reconnect procedures.  But as they see it you are getting voice/data service (albeit not at the same time if you are dropped to 2G/3G) so they are fulfilling their contracted requirements.  They need to realise than in 2022 people are using their phones for multiple tasks at once, Google Maps satnav/traffic info while driving maybe even WiFi hotspot for internet radio or a passenger to watch YouTube while you drive and all of this fails while in call and it drops back to older tech.  If they don't sort this before switching off the 3G network there are going to be a lot of saturated 2G cells suddenly overloaded and that won't mean dropped calls it will mean network busy messages and incoming calls going straight to voicemail with a full signal. Fun fact - 2G cells can only handle 8 voice calls at a time! Was a decent system.... in the 1990's!

[KayleighH]

Hi @mdc1983uk 

Thanks for the really in depth and helpful reply. I will certainly check this out. 

I have actually now messaged Vodafone on Facebook to ask them to turn 4g/WiFi calling back on and then going forward for longer calls, I will manually select the preferred network. 

It will be interesting to see if they now tell me my phone is not compatible. 

[Lord_Snooty]

Afternoon all

I promised a report since the July update on my Oppo find X5 phone

I loaded the July security update on Friday night

ColorOs 12.1 Build CPH2307_11_A._18

It purely says it improves the camera and fixes some known issues

Since the update I have made 11 phone calls over 3 days that have been in excess of 29m50s

Not one has dropped out

Of the 11 phone calls, I have rung

• UK landline
• Three mobile
• Tesco mobile
• Vodafone
• EE

The WI-FI calling option has been on but the signal is strong and it didn’t engage at any time

Pre this update every phone call terminated at 29m50s -no exceptions

I’m not quite sure what to make of this

Maybe a couple of the other Oppo users have had the same security patch update

Would be interesting to see if they’ve been cured?

Hopefully Vodafone will pick this up and it may be of use

It can't be a coincidence

[PayPro]

@mdc1983uk, my recent 4G test calls also drop at 30 minutes and 5 seconds so that is consistent with the WiFi call drop this evening. The 4G drop has varied slightly in the past with different firmware updates but has always been 30 minutes and a few seconds with the new Xperia 1 III that Sony kindly gave me last year when Vodafone basically said they couldn’t assist further and passed the issue onto Sony.

The replacement handset was supposed to resolve the issue but it didn’t other than giving me an extra 10 seconds or so before the calls drop.