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?

[Psych13]

Hi both (Steve and Pete),

To be clear-the issue that *I* thought this thread was about was this: when you make or receive a call, the words that you utter, are only heard by the receiver, 5-10 seconds later, which means that their reply to you, will also be delayed/lagging. This normally happens (for me) when I am on a call for at least 20 minutes. I have never had this experience at the very start of a call. 

[PeteG]

Hello. 

To gather some information on the issue, would you be able to also test some calls in the same way I mentioned in my comment above? 

Thanks.
Pete.

[Eurobuff]

Was there a solution for this as I have the same issue 

[Psych13]

I haven't had any replies from Three, but as I mentioned below, the Apple community seem to think this occurs when phoning a company who use VoIP. Three have never provided any useful information to me whatsoever. I am not convinced that their technical team are aware of this. 

[Psych13]

Hi Trevor,

I have been experiencing the same problem for at least one year if not more. Whenever I make calls (and it's very random and intermittent) there is a delay on the call such that the person on the other end has to wait seconds to hear what I am saying, and the same happens to me when they speak-at least a 5 second delay. Whenever I have phoned Three about this they suggest replacing the SIM (which I've done twice and which has not resolved the issue) or they suggest resetting my Network settings, which also hasn't resolved the issue. 

Only yesterday did I decide to post this issue on the Apple community (I have an iPhone 11) and two people replied with similar replies: 

"That's an artifact of the cellular network. The phone is not at fault. It is more likely to happen on calls from one carrier to another, and especially on calls from a cellular provider to a landline provider" and

"Agreed with ____. The symptoms you describe almost certainly indicate an issue with the carrier’s network". 

And when I read the replies to your post, and the suggestions that this only happens when calls are made to certain businesses, with VOIP, etc. it makes total sense to me because in hindsight, I don't think I have ever had this problem on phone calls to friends. It's only when I phone large companies who typically keep you waiting 20 mins. before they take your call-and then by the time they answer my call, the delay has already kicked in.  

And so I phoned Three this morning, and after going through the same (useless) diagnostics, they said "we can see there *is* an issue in your area. We can offer you two options: to wait 7 days and check if the problem persists, or you can cancel your contract free of charge". 

I explained to them that I am 100% confident that whatever network issue they see in my area is nothing to do with the delay on the calls-the issue they see may be something else (poor signal or what-not) but this cannot possibly explain the issue I am having with the delay on calls. 

I'm now needing to decide if I want to leave Three or not. The main reason I have stayed is for the free roaming when I travel to certain European countries, but is it worth it, and are there other carriers who offer this? 

I am beside myself.   

Any thoughts? 

[LynneDuffy]

Did you ever resolve this. Its driving me crazy. TIA

[digitaltoast]

This is getting ridiculous now - it's started happening even quicker now, after only about 10 minutes. And the delay is always around 5 seconds.

As far as I know, it ONLY affects calls to businesses, ie: people with a VOIP system. Which makes me wonder if there is some kind of peering/codec problem between the networks. And just to confirm once again, it makes no difference whether the phone is connected to WIFI and using wifi calling, or just connected straight to the 4G network.

It also doesn't seem like the delay builds up over time - it just suddenly kicks in.

[Psych13]

@digitaltoast I agree with you-it only happens when phoning businesses/large companies. I went onto the Apple community forum thinking it was a problem with my iPhone and even their customers suggested it's a latency problem with VOIP. So, if this is the case, would moving providers really solve the problem or will we have the same problem with other network providers? One Apple customer suggested seeing if this happens when I my mobile data is on and my wifi is off. I have yet to test that out, but surely we should not have to put our mobile data on (and use data-with Apps consuming data in the background) in order to make a phone call? That sounds ridiculous to me. 

[Rachy333]

This has been happening to me. The people I'm speaking to often get so frustrated and have at times hung up which is awful for me as I've normally been waiting on hold for ages! 

So now that my contract is up I need to know how to resolve this with three or which network to switch to. Any advice would be appreciated! 

[Psych13]

Rachy-I am in the same predicament and interestingly, at no time when I have phoned Three have any of their customer representatives or even tech team informed me that they are aware of this problem. They *must* be aware if customers are posting on their forum. They have no solution for this and as such, it seems pretty clear to me what the solution is....for all of us.