‘Call Failed’ error when making calls

[Retired-George]

This issue has the following symptoms:

For version 1 Sure Signal (the one with four lights on the front):

• Lights one, two and four are all solid
• Incoming calls, texts and internet all work correctly
• When making a call on a registered phone, the error ‘Call Failed’ or similar is displayed

For version 2 Sure Signal (the one with 3 lights on the front):

• The power and system lights are both solid
• Incoming calls, texts and internet all work correctly
• When making a call on a registered phone, the error ‘Call Failed’ or similar is displayed 

For version 3 Sure Signal (the plug in version):

• The power, internet and service lights are all solid and the in use light is either solid or flashing
• Incoming calls, texts and internet all work correctly
• When making a call on a registered phone, the error ‘Call Failed’ or similar is displayed

Troubleshooting steps:

Check for planned maintenance:
Planned maintenance can cause periods of downtime, so check the forum for any planned maintenance. If there is, this will be announced at the top of the Sure Signal forum.

Reset your Sure Signal:

For versions 1 and 2:

1. Hold in the reset button until all lights go solid
2. Pull the power lead out with the reset button still pushed in
3. Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead
4. Wait for all lights to come on and then release the reset button

For version 3:

1. Locate the button on the base of the box next to the Ethernet ports.
2. Press and hold the button for approximately 30 seconds.
3. Once the lights come back on, release the button.

The Sure Signal will be back online in around 1 hour.

If you’re still unable to make calls, there may be a compatibility issue with your Sure Signal and your location information (also known as SAC/LAC compatibility).

A SAC (Service Area Code) connects to a mast and is used to determine the rough location of where a call’s made. It's needed for the emergency services to know where a call was made from.

As a Sure Signal can be used anywhere in the country, it doesn't automatically come with a SAC. The SAC is generated based on the postcode you enter when registering your Sure Signal and it's created based on the nearest cell to your location.

In order for calls to be made, they must go over an MSC (Mobile Switching Centre). If the MSC doesn't hold the SAC for your area on its database, the call will fail.

The MSCs should now hold all SACs for Sure Signal calls. For anyone who is still affected please post in this thread and we can look into it further.

Thanks,

Jenny

[andy_k]

Hi Kay,

Thanks for your reply. I've changed the location as you suggested, then changed it back to our postcode and at the moment it seems to be working much better. I'll let you know if there's any re-occurance of the problem.

Many thanks

[Retired-Andy]

Hi andy_k,

Thanks for the update; it’s great to hear your Sure Signal is working as it should.

You know where we are if you need help in the future.

Thanks,

Andrew

[Jenny]

Hi andy_k,

I’m pleased to see that we’ve got everything sorted!

If you’d like to provide Kay with feedback on the service she provided, I know she’d really appreciate it!

Just click here.

Thanks,

Jenny

[andy_k]

Hi,

Since my update last week I've had a repeat (I think) of the problem although I'm not 100%. I had a call dropped with
"call failed" again, but only the once. In addition, I've had a couple of short phone calls that have worked fine. However, on ending the call the two lights on my SureSignal (v2) started flashing (there were two solid lights during the call itself). I'm not sure how long they flashed for, as when I next looked at the SureSignal I had the one solid light again.

Do you have any ideas?

Many thanks.

[Sukhi]

Hi andy_

Hopefully it was a one off glitch, let us know if it continues :).

Thanks

Sukhi

[Wellsy]

I'm still having the same problem one month after my first post. It has been confirmed that the problem is the SAC one as my postcode results in a SAC=0. What I don't understand is why this is taking so long to fix and no time scale can be given. Any thoughts?

[fillari]

Hi there, it's me again.

I have followed the below instructions to the letter more than one time.

I have reset the SS, I have resync it, I have tracert the BT Infinity router all ok, I have rechecked the port forwarding, I have deregister it and register it back again.

I have sent the SS box back and got a new one

I have done all the above again and again in the last 10 days but still I can not make calls, I can receive all right but not making calls.

The phone rings once and then I am cut off.

The strange thing is that the SS worked well before from the same location, went away for the moth of June and when I came back the troubles started.

I am not a tech guys but in the back of my mind I have the doubt that the SAC associated with my post code is not the correct one and that is the only thing left to check.

Can one of you tech guys help me? Really I do not know what to do anymore and I believe the support guys/ladies are getting sick and tired of having me on the phone for help.

Thanks

[andy_k]

Hi Sukhi, thanks for your reply. Since my last post I've had this problem re-occur twice more. The most recent occurence was today at 11:20am. These were both outbound calls I made on my iPhone 4s via the SureSignal. The calls both dropped after about 10 minutes, with 'Call Failed' shown on the phone. Before the call there was one solid light (the left one), during the call there was two solid lights, and after the call dropped both lights were flashing on and off. After a short time they stopped flashing but both lights remained on (as I write this they are both still illuminated).

Can you help?

[stevenck]

Mine does this too...

[Retired-Dave]

Hi stevenck,

As mentioned by James here, you've posted in two different threads to say you're having the same issue as the posters there. I appreciate they're not mutually exclusive, but it can make it harder to pin down what's going on.

Can you confirm exactly what is happening - issue, lights displayed, Sure Signal version - on one of the threads so we can help. Keep the information on one thread only as that way we won't be repeating ourselves or missing information you posted in the other thread.

===================================

fillari & andy_k - I'm not sure why your posts weren't responded to before. Apologies for that.

Can you confirm if you're still having issues so we can pick this back up if needed? If anything has changed since your post, let us know so we have the latest picture.

Dave