Nokia 105 not making or receiving calls

[jegan69]

My husband has exactly the same issue with his Nokia 105, got a new sim as advised by EE - still same issue, got a new Nokia 105 to connect to 4G as was then told it was because 3g disconnected in our area, still having same issue. We live in NW London. All day yesterday on to either EE Customer Service or in the EE shop & no further on today. 

[jegan69]

When we spoke to one EE customer service agent yesterday they seemed to say same as you - a 4G enabled nokia phone should work as old one was connecting to 2G hotspots outside of the house. We already had been to the EE shop to get a new sim as advised by them previously so tried a new Nokia 106 4g with the new sim & same issue. One of the  customer service agents we have spoken this evening  told us about the no guarantee service.  But the sim only allows calls to be made & received from the smart phone as soon as it is transferred to Nokia it won't make or receive calls so I am at a total loss. 

[jegan69]

First EE said had to be a fault with his sim, then it was 3G not available so the phone wss working sporadically cos connecting to 2G, so get 4G enabled non-smart phone, did that still no joy, then it was 4G wasn't enabled on the new sim the shop gave us & they adjusted that remotely -  same issue so finally she told us actual phone service was not a guarantee from a non-smart phone - never had a problem till Saturday.  Left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing & he is just having to manage the smart phone for now otherwise he is missing calls. 

[bristolian]

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@jegan69 wrote:

His nokia phone has worked perfectly up til Saturday

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This strongly suggests a config issue with CSFB has arisen. I suspect your phone has always been using EE's 2G network for calls & 4G for data, but that something has changed to stop this working. Normal process should be for a fault ticket to be raised for further investigation, but from your description, CS aren't prepared to do this - that's grounds for complaint.

@jegan69 wrote:

First EE said had to be a fault with his sim, then it was 3G not available so the phone wss working sporadically cos connecting to 2G

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3G was switched off in January 2024, so any faults agent blaming this for an issue that's only arisen in recent days, appears to be ignoring basic troubleshooting to avoid proper investigation.

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@jegan69 wrote:

apparently every other phone provider will tell us the same. So I don't know how you are supposed to manage to have a mobile phone & have service if you have no Internet or smartphone. 

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I don't see how any EE CS agent can pass comment on behalf of other MNOs. 3UK don't have a 2G network, but VF & O2 do, and it's not for an EE CS agent to advise on their support process. Support for legacy devices is one of the reasons why 2G is retained for now.

[jegan69]

Thak you for that info - you have been very helpful. Can I ask what CSFB is? EE did say the Nokia was using 2G & this was why it had developed this issue but no-one can work out why it just suddenly caused problems on Saturday. The phone wasn't using data, it is only capable of making calls & texts & it does work now in a smartphone - after EE enabled 4G last night. For 2 days it didn't work in any phone only occasionally outside  of the house. 

[bristolian]

Bit of a history lesson here - natively, 4G only supported data not voice, thus "CSFB" (circuit-switched-fallback) creates voice support allowing a 4G phone to fallback to 2G/3G for voice calls. VoLTE ("Voice over LTE") is the ideal solution, allowing both voice & data to use 4G.

Whilst a VoLTE phone will thus give the best experience, and is the recommended solution, EE's 2G network remains supported as does CSFB. 3G was switched-off nationally in Jan 2024, CSFB has been to 2G since before this time.

A CS agent has no requirement to understand the network architecture, but they should be following the escalation process which ultimately means raising a fault ticket. Your issue may be that unless EE have supplied the device you're using, there's always (and rightly so) an element of unsupported equipment being used.

[jegan69]

Thank you so much for all your advice!