Why does phone lag when talking to business

[trevorhill1959]

I have a relatively new Samsung phone on 3 network. Whenever I call a business phone number there is a lag in the phone/network responding so that the first few sounds that I make (first few letters or numbers) are not heard by the person at the other end of the call. Everything works fine when calling other mobile numbers.
I had wondered if it was a characteristic of my phone. But today I was talking with a British Gas agent and he said that the same thing happens to him, also on 3, with a different model of phone.
It is very frustrating to have to keep repeating myself because the network can't keep up.
Does anyone have an explanation and solution for this please?

[edb2002]

I have the same problem. It's fine when I speak mobile to mobile but whenever I call a business number there are constant drop outs - I can hear them fine but only some of what I say gets through. I'm on an iPhone 13. I've only been on 3 a few months and it's very problematic. Did anyone get to the bottom of it?! Thanks, Ed

[stevesheridan]

I'm getting this lag - 3 or 4 seconds, when on some calls. Infuriating. Like calling Australia 40 years ago. Conversations have long gaps then we both speak at once. Happened multiple times now with different people. Never used to get it on EE but Three is so much more affordable. I'm using iPhone 16E fully up-to-date. Seems like signal is being "least-cost routed" circuitously and end user experience is suffering. Anybody else??

[bfpr]

I'm having this issue. Three took a week and a half to "run tests" came back and said nothing was wrong. But there own staff could hear how bad it was on the calls with them. Sometimes the lag is so bad they hang up thinking I've gone. Please fix or end my contract.

[Psych13]

Thank you for posting this, @bfpr. The more people do, the greater the chance that Three will look into it. I agree, though-to date, their response to this issue has been unhelpful and negligent. Many of the Three customer service people I have spoken with had no idea such an issue exists. Surely, all Three reps who answer customer calls should have a list of all the issues other customers have reported so that they can at least validate our concerns "yes, we are familiar with/aware of this issue". This is my experience with Apple-they tend to be aware of issues that other customers have reported. But with Three—no. It's as if we are each the first one to bring it to their attention.    

[PeteG]

Hi there.

I'm not sure if these are the same issues based on the descriptions. 

Maybe I'm wrong but it sounds like the original post describes an issue where the first part of certain things that are said are simply lost. It doesn't make it to the other side. 

What I'm getting from your description is that you're experiencing long latency, where the audio is getting through but taking a long time, is that right? 

Pete. 

[stevesheridan]

Hi Pete,

Yes you are right but this thread seemed to be the only one where lag was discussed so I tagged along.

Any suggestions?

Steve

[PeteG]

That's quite strange. Can you try testing some calls with different configurations? Some calls over Wifi calling (Use airplane mode and turn Wifi back on to force the Wifi call). Some calls over 4G with Wifi calling disabled in the settings, or Wifi turned off so there's no wifi connection. Some calls where you have Wifi calling on, but make the call normally, allowing the phone to choose how the call is made (I guess this would be the default set up). 

Pete. 

[Psych13]

No disrespect, Pete but this would be an impossible test-because it is an intermittent problem-I never know when I will have this issue and from what others have said (either here or on the Apple community forums), this happens mainly when phoning/receiving a call from someone with a VoIP. I never know if the person I am phoning or the person who phones me has a VoIP and so I can't test this out. When you carry out a test like this, you have to be in control of as many variables as possible. I can turn my wifi on and off, and my mobile data on/off, but I certainly can't control or predict what phone system the people I phone or who phone me, have. 

[PeteG]

I understand. 

Instead then, it might need some longer term testing. If you could keep a log of calls where you notice the issue, the date time of the call, inbound or outbound, details of the issue (lag, degradation, etc). Once you have around 5 examples or so, come back with an update here. It would be a good idea to keep a log of the phone numbers for each impacted call you've made or received as well, as this might be useful down the line, please don't share the phone numbers here though, I'll reach out directly if I need those later. 

Pete.