Making a telephone call

[tarazed]

Hi everybody. 

I have been having problems phoning out and receiving calls just lately.  My account is topped up regularly  and there have been no difficulties over the past two or three years.  My phone is an ancient Nokia Classic 3100 which I do not intend to change, ever.  I am deaf and have to use hearing aids so I rarely make calls to anybody, except my sister and prefer the mobile to landline because the landline telephone  has a very poor speaker.  Calls to my sister 's landline used to work but now she does not hear anything from my end but I can hear her.  If she rings me from her landline or smartphone the signal does not get through.   Landline to landline works fine.

This is a change which may be connected with  a recent upgrade to my VirginMedia broadband setup but that can have nothing to do with mobile to mobile communication.  Beats me.

[James_B]

Hi @tarazed,

Welcome to the EE Community. 🙂

It looks like you are experiencing two separate issues, not being able to receive incoming calls and poor quality outgoing calls.

What happens at your sister's end when she tries to call you?

Have you checked to see if there is any debris in the mic of your phone?

James

[tarazed]

Thanks James.

If my sister calls to my mobile she finds that she cannot connect.  My
mobile does not ring.

Looking around I suspect that the phone is in hibernation but do not
understand why.  I keep it topped up regularly because I ran out of
credit once during a call.  I can only assume that making only half a
dozen calls per month has triggered something.  As I do not feel the
need to use it any more often than that I guess routine dummy calls to
my landline are in order.  The next problem is how to overcome this
block - shall probably visit the local EE store.

Len

[James_B]

Hi @tarazed,

Your ability to make an outbound call shows that your account isn't in hibernation.

Does your sister hear a recorded message when she calls?

What about if you call your mobile from your landline?

James

[tarazed]

Hi James

When my sister calls  to my landline from her mobile she gets "is currently unavailable".

My landline to my mobile works OK.

My mobile to my landline works one way only - hear target OK but target does  not hear source, exactly the same situation as phoning sister's landline from my mobile.

My mobile to sister's mobile works fine.

Sister's mobile to my mobile fails with "not available".

Since my sister experiences no difficulties with either of her devices with any other contacts the fault definitely originates at my mobile.   It is a puzzle - what can have changed in the last few weeks one wonders?

Anyway, thanks for your concern James.

[Captgeneralmark]

@tarazed 

Given the age of the Nokia 3100, it may be suffering from the 3G switch off. All networks are switching the 3G networks off, as required by HMG. If I’m right, and your phone isn’t compatible with 4G or 5G, then it’s time to upgrade.

It might still be able to connect on 2G, but I’ve no idea as to how good that ancient technology is.

[James_B]

Hi @tarazed,

I'm unsure why you are getting different results when connecting with different phones.

I'd recommend getting in touch with Customer Care so our Technical Support Team can take a detailed look at this for you.

They'll be happy to help. 🙂

James

[tarazed]

Thanks guys.  No solution yet but I have a suspicion that the 3G closedown may be the cause of my problem, in which case  a visit to the local store to get a more up-to-date phone may be in order.  It will not be possible to keep the old number, which is a bummer, because the SIM card is antique as well and would not fit modern phones.  From recent experience I shall have horrendous problems with on-screen-keyboards, just too clumsy and arthritic to deal with them.  So, probably some kind of resolution but no proper solution.  If the 3G business turns out to be correct then I shall be back to tick the appropriate box.  Thanks again.

[Captgeneralmark]

@tarazed 

Your local EE shop should be able to do a sim swap for one that will fit whatever new phone you get. So, no need to ditch you old number.

Also, modern phones allow you to call people in your contacts list by voice. So, for instance, saying “call uncle Fred” will call someone in your contacts list called “uncle Fred”.