Phone rings but I can't hear or be heard when at home

[LondonDave]

For several months now, I've been dropping over half the calls I make or receive while at home.  I can sometimes hold a connection if I rush outside to take the call but this isn't a practical long term solution.  I live in south London and have an iPhone 8.  Usually one bar of service shows on my phone; sometimes LTE, sometimes 3G.  I have no difficulty with calls anywhere else I travel in Ontario including some remote locations.  I've restarted and reset my phone and settings many times with no discernible improvement.  I may have success with wifi calling but I read the terms and I don't like it very much.  It sounds like I will join any nearby public wifi network if I try to make a call where public wifi is available (Canadian Tire?  Tim Hortons?  En Route Service Stations, etc.) and I don't like the lack of security associated with those public networks.

I suspect I'm in a "dead zone" for Bell and I know this is hard to prove.  All I want is for my phone to work every time, particularly when I'm at home.

I tried to start a Chat on the website about this but was directed to the forum due to the nature of my enquiry and I couldn't find any solutions in the forum.

Please, please... help is greatly appreciated.

Dave

[VirginPlusKris]

Hey there @LondonDave. Welcome to the Community and thanks for your post. 

As the Community is a peer to peer assistance channel, it would be hard to determine the cause. However, signal strength can be affected by many factors; line of sight to towers, topography, the amount of users connected to the tower and many more. 

In order for the Community to best assist, some extra details will be needed;

• Are you only seeing issues with your calls? What about text messaging or data usage?
• You've said this has been going on for "several months." Was there a change in your life at that time? Moving homes, a new phone, etc.
• Do you know of anyone else in the area having similar issues?
• Have you tried to restart your phone and reset the network settings?
• Have you got in touch with our technical support team to open a ticket?

Additionally, we would like to recommend Wi-Fi Calling again as this is going to be the most commonly recommended fix for a long time reception issue such as yours. Searching for local wi-fi networks is device specific, and as such is not something we would have control over - furthermore, as mentioned on our page for Wi-Fi Calling, it will default to network calling when possible.

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

[LondonDave]

Hi VirginPlusKris,

I've noted your request for more information and here are my answers:

• Are you only seeing issues with your calls? What about text messaging or data usage?
  I only have issues with phone calls in my home.  Phone calls from my car or other locations are fine.  I never use cell phone data at home since I am connected to my home WiFi so I have no observations on that subject.  Text messages are received and sent without obvious latency.  
• You've said this has been going on for "several months." Was there a change in your life at that time? Moving homes, a new phone, etc.
  There have been no changes to my home location or my phone for several years.  I am spending more time at home now since I'm retired so the connection problems are much more evident to me.  And, I changed my plan with Virgin a couple of months ago but I believe that was simply a billing and data limit change.
• Do you know of anyone else in the are having similar issues?  
  I don't know anyone else in the neighbourhood who uses Virgin as their cell phone service provider.  I did notice poor reception when visiting my neighbour's home which is about 100 metres from my home.  I was not able to use data in my neighbour's back yard a few weeks ago.  Otherwise, cell reception / coverage isn't really a topic of discussion with my friends.  My wife is with a competitor and I now often resort to using her phone instead of mine; obviously an untenable solution.
  
  
• Have you tried to restart your phone and reset the network settings?
  I've restarted my phone many times.  I reset network settings recently... what a pain!  I drops all my saved WiFi network passwords which is only slightly inconvenient for my home WiFi but I couldn't get onto other WiFi networks where I've been granted access - family members homes, friends homes, gym, church etc.  I'm still chasing down WiFi passwords for other networks. I will not be doing that again.  There was no discernible improvement in phone call performance at home after resetting the network settings.
  
  
• Have you got in touch with our technical support team to open a ticket?
  I tried the chat function about 2 months ago.  After I identified the nature of my problem, the chatbot told me to try the Community Forum and disconnected the chat.  I don't know how else to open a ticket but I'll try again today. 

Additionally, we would like to recommend Wi-Fi Calling

I dislike the limitations of WiFi calling.  Based on information found elsewhere on the Virgin Mobility website, If I leave the WiFi coverage area (my home), the call drops.  If I'm on a call and enter a WiFi area, the call drops. I activated WiFi calling a couple of hours ago after yet another call earlier today that was unsuccessful.  That cannot be a permanent solution.

I fear I'm in a "dead zone" even though I live in a single family home in a fairly large city in Canada (London).  The coverage map shows my home is within the 5G network

Please, please help.  

[VirginPlusKris]

Thank you for all your details, @LondonDave. We'll be reaching out in a private message to gather further info.

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