I've been having persistent problems calling one particular mobile phone: rather than ringing, my call goes straight to voicemail, even when the two phones are in the same room. I've just had the problem with calls to another phone, from both my phone and a further phone, all three in the same room again.
- My phone: OnePlus 3T on Three network.
- Sister's phone: iPhone (don't know which model, but about 3-5 years old) on O2
- Mom's phone: Motorola E5 Play on Plusnet
- Dad's phone: iPhone SE 3rd gen on Plusnet
I first became aware of the problem when I (Three) called my sister (O2). Her phone didn't ring, my call was passed straight to VM. However, if her phone called mine first, then I could successfully call hers: it would ring and she could answer it. Text messages always get through (to the best of my knowledge). This problem has persisted for at least nine months at this point. I didn't have the outgoing call problem with any other phone, mobile or landline, that I called to test it. The problem can occur when we are in the same room (though not necessarily connected to the same cell towers, I don't know how/if the networks share resources in my area).
Today my dad tried to call my mom and had the same problem: his call went straight to mom's VM. They're both on Plusnet, so the call didn't have to be passed between networks. Mom was out at the time, so her phone could have been buried deeply enough in her handbag that it wasn't getting a signal, but even when she got home, the problem persisted. With the phones in the same room, mom's phone didn't ring and the call went straight to VM. I then called mom's phone from mine (Three): it didn't ring, and the call went to VM. I called out from mom's phone to mine, which rang and was connected normally: after this, I called mom's phone from mine, and it rang as normal.
I've flagged this issue several times to Three, and their troubleshooting hasn't found any issue with my phone or their network. I've tried to get them to talk to the other networks in case this is a problem that occurs as the calls cross between networks, but they basically refuse to do anything else to investigate it. I'll raise the issue with Plusnet, but I doubt I'll get any further with them.
Has anyone else had a similar problem? Perhaps you have advice or, even better, a solution? Maybe if enough of us are affected, the networks might actually look into it.
