Phone stopped making and receiving calls

[MarkEmm_1879377]

Had sim for about a year so no probs usually, but today was told I was rung several times, checked and nothing, tested at home and its not making or receiving calls at all, texting, net all OK, on Android, any ideas, tried switching off, removing sim, checking settings etc

[MSF]

@MarkEmm_1879377 Can you try sim in another phone?

[Rebekah_150]

Hey  MarkEmm_1879377,

It is likely that you were experiencing issue from the network outage on the 1st, if you are still unable to use the services I recommend contacting our chat team https://smarty.co.uk/contact available daily from 8am – 8pm.

[QinYang_1314494]

Same problem, smarty worked totally fine for over a year then stopped making or receiving phone calls 

[MSF]

@QinYang_1314494  You may have noticed that the other posts on this thread were a long time ago.

If calls stopped working, what steps did you take to find out why? Are you still with Smarty?

[QinYang_1314494]

yes, i am still using smarty sim on my phone, it data works well, just no calls. i tried giffgaff and vodafone sim cards on my phone, both worked well in calling. i also tried my smarty sim on another phone, it also worked in calling. i checked the APN setting, and made sure it is what 3 network requires (it should be correct otherwise i wouldn't be able to use data). my sim card setting also indicates that smarty is the primary option for calls. so, i guess it's just that my phone doesn't support smarty sim in calling. i then cleared the cache of big apps on my phone and reinstalled the phone app. still not working. do i need to switch to another phone app? any suggestions? i really don't want to try the last resort of resetting my phone to its default setting.  

[MSF]

@QinYang_1314494 Have you ordered a replacement sim after taking out the existing one, cleaning it and then reinserting it?

All seems quite strange as people report, if anything, being able to make calls but not use data.

Does the phone have a second sim in it?  - I note that you have selected Smarty as primary option. If so, have you tried removing the second sim?

The phone app - usually you would use whatever is the default in the phone's operating system.

[QinYang_1314494]

thanks, all very reasonable. i actually replaced my sim once this may after finding out it failed to make calls. but the new one, the current one, still doesn't work in calling. my phone has two sim slots but it uses only one sim, which is smarty. the sim information is correct in the setting. the only thing i need to mention is that i also use smarty sim on a router (TP-link) for better network quality. the sim card works very well with that device. the switch between the router and my phone is also often. i don't know if that caused the problem. but a phone that can't call really annoys. seems not much choice left...

[MSF]

@QinYang_1314494 As I understand, you move the sim between the router and the phone.

The sim works well in the router you say.

Are you sure that you have not purchased a data-only sim and plan? In that case, it would not work for calls as the sim is not correctly provisioned.

[QinYang_1314494]

thanks, but i have always been on a full plan, the dashboard says: 40GB Data, Unlimited Text, Unlimited Voice

[MSF]

@QinYang_1314494  Fair enough then. I do wonder whether moving the sim between phone and router is not really good for it.

Further check - can you try the sim in another phone?

Failing that, I think you will need to have a web chat with Smarty Support so that they can check everything.  https://smarty.co.uk/contact

[QinYang_1314494]

it worked well on another phone. it is good to confirm that i have exhausted possible cures (except a major reset of phone). i have tried the web chat bot a few times, but personally i think it's a waste of time. ai can't replace real humans yet! thanks a lot indeed!

[MSF]

@QinYang_1314494  So, if the sim works well in another phone, surely it must be a problem with your current phone, don't you agree?

[QinYang_1314494]

i would think it is a problem of compatibility: my smarty sim works on another phone, my phone supports calling with other sim cards (vodafone and giffgaff); and smarty sim card used to worke well on my phone, now they do not any more. 

[YulianK]

Hi @QinYang_1314494, 

Sorry to hear about your problem.

Does you phone support 4G calling, and is it enabled in your handset settings?

If you have two SIM slots, you can try putting the SIM in the other slot. Sometimes VOLTE doesn't work if there isn't a SIM in Slot 1.

You can check if your phone is compatible with 4G-VOLTE here.

Thanks,

YulianK

[QinYang_1314494]

many thanks for helping me pursue this issue. i checked the settings on my phone (a cheap yet robust kogan model of agora xi), its 'mobile network' indicates smarty; its 'preferred network type' shows 4g; and its APN shows: 3 (mob.asm.net). its 'sim cards' shows 'sim slot 1: smarty' (followed by my phone number); 'sim slot 2: sim empty'; and 'mobile data: smarty' (which is correct, since smarty data works well on my phone). the mistery continues ...

[QinYang_1314494]

also, under 'sim cards', both 'sim slot 1: smarty' and 'mobile data: smarty' are in black and i can choose to switch them off; but other items are all in grey: 'calls: smarty', 'sms messages: smarty', 'allow to access mobile network during calling (switched off)'. why are they in grey? are they set as default? 

[QinYang_1314494]

please read my three replies in reversed order

[MSF]

@QinYang_1314494  Not sure if this is helpful........

https://help.kogan.com/s/article/Doesthisphoneworkwithmyprovider2  and also https://help.smarty.co.uk/en/articles/4670061-what-bandwidth-and-spectrum-is-available-on-smarty  This seems to  indicate that your phone should work in the mid band, but not in Smarty's low band maybe?

I also found this quote (and similar repeated often) : At a high level, low-bands have greater coverage but lower speeds, mid-bands have a balance of coverage and speed, and high-bands have higher speeds but less coverage. In addition, each band presents opportunities for a service provider to balance between frequency, coverage, quality, latency, and reliability 

Is it possible that the phone does not like the UK frequency bands? I'm assuming that yours is Australian here, so hope I'm not wasting your time.