Dropped calls with a wire headset

I have been using Sony wired Headsets for years. (Sony MDREX15AP for example).Of course these require the adapter to use in an iPhone. I have enjoyed years of good results with this type of headset. And I replace them pretty often - they are cheap.

In February 2021, I started to get many dropped calls on my iPhone10. I bought an iPhone12 and the dropped alls persisted. I have had multiple hours of support sessions with Verizon and Apple. All the diagnostics check out fine - AND both say I have no dropped calls. (Folks, my calls drop after 30 seconds - I have mornings where I redial 20 times.)

I noticed a trend where my calls did not drop on speaker phone (I almost never just hold my phone to my ear - just not my thing.). I tested calls without wired headset - dropped calls disappeared.

I have more than one wired headset - problem persists with all headsets.

My guess is that with the new 5G tower changes and the Verizon frequencies that the wired headset acts as a resonance antenna and is causing a "HUP" event. So my calls drop, but the system thinks I hung up - again, and again, and again.

Well, I personally hate bluetooth headsets. They are fiddly and require daily charging. All of my calls to other people using bluetooth are full of "wait - can't hear - OH OK now my bluetooth is working". IMO (as an electrical engineer), bluetooth must be the worst possible solution for audio. It works fine for keyboards, but not si fine for audio.

But everyone has accepted this crappy solution (bluetooth) so the probably stopped testing new phones for antenna effects at Apple and everywhere else with wired headsets.

Now I am stuck using bluetooth, but at least I don't get dropped calls.