Poor Call Quality - but 5 bars signal and 3G

[tyzer007]

ISSUE:

Full signal including 3G - all normal lights - plenty of bandwidth but the call quality is terrible after 1-3 minutes.  Voice becomes garbled - more often we can hear the other party (download) but they cannot hear us (upload) - sometimes both are garbled.

I've been reading this forum for the past few days and I'm impressed that there are people who actually read the forum comments and make an effort to find solutions - I hope that I'm as lucky as so many others.

I have the original SureSignal and have had the device for over 2 years now - and frankly it has never worked well for me.  I always blamed the problem on BT (my Internet provider) and some crazy load-balancing/throttling they were doing.

My SureSignal S/N:  VSS:  21196937060

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

Recently I moved home and I'm now on BT Infinity with the latest BT Home Hub.  When I run a SpeedTest I get plenty of speed (http://www.speedtest.net/result/2006854273.png) and a reasonable ping test time.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\>tracert 212.183.133.181

Tracing route to 212.183.133.181 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 15 ms 3 ms 3 ms BTHomeHub.home [192.168.1.254]
2 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 217.32.146.161
3 10 ms 11 ms 13 ms 217.32.146.206
4 11 ms 10 ms 15 ms 213.120.156.146
5 13 ms 11 ms 11 ms 217.41.168.239
6 11 ms 13 ms 11 ms 217.41.168.109
7 11 ms 13 ms 11 ms 109.159.249.192
8 17 ms 13 ms 21 ms core1-te0-7-0-16.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.
249.137]
9 16 ms 13 ms 16 ms 213.131.193.22
10 13 ms 21 ms 42 ms peer1-xe1-0-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.2
54.98]
11 16 ms 16 ms 13 ms LNDGW2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
12 13 ms 14 ms 16 ms 85.205.116.2
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

C:\Users\>

PHYSICAL LOCATION

I have positioned the SureSignal 1.5M away from the BT Home Hub and the BT Infinity box to minimize interference.

ween...)

DEVICES

We have 2 iPhone 4 devices and a Nokia C7 - and the experience is the same on all of the devices:  1-3 minutes of a good call and then one or both sides of the conversation become completely garbled.  i.e.; the voice compression just falls to pieces.

When we look at our phones we always see a full 5 bars of signal - so the phone sees the SureSignal well enough.  

SURE SIGNAL DIAGNOSTIC LIGHTS

And as for lights - I see lights 1, 2 and 4 on solid - and light 3 flashes.  This is the normal configuration I understand.

My partner was on the phone just now and as he entered the house the phone obviously shifted to the SureSignal and immediately the call quality became so poor that he had to drop the call and use the landline (there was a lot of swearing inbet

I've read through troubleshooting and checked for all of the obvious things - but we are having no joy.  And in this house there is only partial regular signal due to being on the ground floor and having very thick wallls.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Troy

[Retired-Dave]

Hi nsimmo,

I've checked the case and, at this point, they've indicated that the issue appears to be ISP-based. 

As such, can you double-check with your ISP that they are not restricting the line or blocking this connection in any way? This would help to remove any issues outside our control.

Dave

[nsimmo]

Hi

The original reported problem of poor call quality seems to be resolved, however what is now happening is that my mobile phone loses the 3G indicator from time to time and when on the phone calls are dropped intermittenly

Neil

[Retired-Dave]

Hi nsimmo,

Can you try running a speedtest and traceroute at the time the signal drops for me? This will help us to see if the connection is being throttled in some way causing the Sure Signal connection to drop.

Traceroute

On a PC:

Click on Start and select Run

Type CMD into the Run box and press enter/click ok

A black box will appear.

In this box type tracert 212.183.133.177 press Enter

Paste the output of this command into your reply.

Also, can you see if there is any change to the light pattern when this happens?

Dave

[nsimmo]

Hi

I have exactly the same issue, I upgraded to Infinity from Orange Broadband a month ago, my suresignal was working ok on Orange, now however whilst I have good broadband performance, the Suresignal works but initially the call quality is fine, but after a few seconds it deteriorates rapidly

Please advise

Neil

[tyzer007]

Hello,

I was checking back on this issue - Somehow it has been marked as being SOLVED - but it hasn't been solved.  And the link to the Solution doesn't actually point to any solution either - so not sure what's happening there.

I still have terrible call quality.  I opened a ticket and got a call from Vodafone Customer Support - and that was in June.  

I haven't had a call back from anyone and it is really a bad customer experience.  I have paid for the Femtocell - and I can't use it so it's been turned off - meaning I have terrible call quality and I'm out the money.

Come on folks - get with it and let's get this issue resolved.

[Retired-Lee]

Hello tyzer007,

Thanks for checking up on this.

Looking back through our records you are showing as being a BT customer. Is this correct?

I also note you've three devices registered to the VSS. Are they all affected by the poor audio quality symptoms?

Could you also confirm which BT product you have please?

Cheers,

LeeH

[tyzer007]

Hi Lee,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes.  I am a BT Customer - I have the BT Infinity Product.  I am using the latest BT HomeHub product as supplied by BT.

Yes.  I have 3 devices attached to my SureSignal - All 3 devices suffer from the same call quality problems.  2 iPhone 4 devices and a Nokia C7 device

Most common symptom is that I can hear the other party - but they cannot hear me.  

I have checked upload bandwidth and there is no problem there - and considering we have BT Infinity we have lots of bandwidth.

[Retired-Lee]

Hi tyzer007,

That's great. Thanks for confirming.

I've fired your case off to our support teams. We've been seeing reports of this kind but you're the first BT Infinity customer I can think of  at the moment that's been suffering with this. Everyone else seems to be Virgin Media customers.

Once I receive any feedback I'll update the thread.

Cheers,

LeeH

[gruf]

Same problem as above, i have 100meg broadband. virgin media. this problem has only just started and i have had the broadband for ages.

can someone help or contact me or tell me how to fix.

Tar

[gruf]

anyone