IPHONE 4s call failed??!!!

could it be network related? does it happen no matter where you are? or is it limited to one geographic region? the tower in your area could be experiencing issues. i am currently suffering from a faulty tower in my area. during busy peak times (monday to friday 9am-5pm) i get dropped calls and my phone drops to EDGE and 2G. in the evenings and on weekends when tower load is minimal i experience no issues whatsoever. i'm working with my carrier to sort out whats happening, but i/we have ruled out the phone as the culprit. i wouldn't exchange your phone unless you're absolutely sure it is the phone thats the issue. you'll be left with a "refurbished" replacement from the apple store when there was no issue with your handset to begin with, and the problems will continue.

Yes I did a hard reset the last time and a few days later the problems started up again.. I am in the middle of doing a Hard reset again along with a downgrade to 5.0.1 as well to see if that will resolve it.

As for the network it doesn't matter where I am if I have 1 bar on my phone sometimes a call will go through sometimes it will fail (which i would suspect anyways) but it's the same if I had a full bar on the phone.

At first I thought it was network but from searching online it seems to be more and more people are having simular issue's.

I don't have a problem getting it replaced but I want to rule out all possibilites first so at the moment a hard reset, downgrade and perhaps a replacement sim card to see if any of these steps would fix the problems.

Once done if all else fails a replacement will be next.

I started to have all the problems mentioned above about a month ago. I had my iphone 4s changed 2 times, so this is the third one, O2 has sent me a new sim card and they have disconected me for 24hours on the weekend. The problem persistis!!! I have been to the apple genius at Convent Garden 4 times!! that is so so bad.. Does anyone really has any idea what would the solution? O2 is telling me they will change the phone for HTC which I do not want... Would that be really a problem with the Iphone or with O2?

I am very bad with all this super technology, so I am lost and I do not know what to do....... But the fact that Apple guys and O2 guys seem to not know what to do either is what makes me wonder....

you've got to explain in more detail what specifically is happening in your situation. does it happen in all areas, or only in one geographic region? my issues turned out NOT to be related to my iphone 4s, it turns out my "call failed" happens when the network is overloaded and their isn't enough capacity. thankfully for me, it only happens during business hours (9-5pm) when the area of downtown where i am is full of workers that come into town for work. the moment they start leaving in the late afternoon, my issues go away. this is not my imagination, its been confirmed by my provider. their towers are running at full capacity during business hours. they plan to upgrade the towers, but my phone is not at fault. if i leave this geographic area and connect to another tower, the issues do not appear.

as for changing your phone, i wouldn't do it, but if you're left with no choice, the only phone i'd recommend would be the "google (samsung) galaxy nexus". don't get the htc.

I find that turning off 3G and WiFi seems to make the problem go away. Calls don't drop I don't get the problem where I can hear the caller and they can't hear me... Bit annoying having to turn these on and off though.

I cannot make calls, receive, send texts or use the internet Nothing works. I have to reset network settings evey minute.. My flatmates have the same iphone and the same provider and they are all fine!!!

Now.. Thanks a lot for the "turning of 3g" tip, but really.. What is the point of having a 3g phone if we cannot use the 3g?

The problem is persistent and it happens everywhere... I just would like to know what the problem really is...

wow, thats crazy. completely not at all what i'm experiencing. sounds like its related to your account and hence possibly your sim card. you say your flatmates have the same phone. perhaps try taking your sim card out of your phone and putting it into your flatmates phone. see if the issue persists. if yes, then clearly either your sim is messed up, or something related to your account on your carriers end is messed up. it makes no sense that you've been through multiple phones and experienced the same issues. the only common denominator is the sim card and your account. it could be something as simple as that. post back and let me know what happens...

I have related my troubles elsewhere in this forum. Don't know what thread it was, could probably search my user name if interested. (Am I the only one that finds this forum really really complicated to find answers to like problems that are actually grouped together??)

Anyway, thought I'd add to this discussion because it's more recent than others I've read. I have had many of the same phone network problems with my 4s. I am living in Thailand but purchased my phone in the USA. It's a 64 MB Apple-unlocked GSM for (supposedly) using on GSM networks anywhere, such as what we've got here in Thailand.

My original phone provider here was AIS, which is Thailand's #1 phone service provider. My old iPhone 3G was on that network and I never had any issues whatsoever with them before. In fact, I still have the 3G and still use it on that network without a problem.

When I bought the new 4s, I went to AIS for a new micro-sim which allowed me to keep my same phone number as my old phone since I've had it for six years now. At the AIS shop after setting up the micro-sim it was fine. Once I got it home, I had the "no signal" message on the phone. And was unable to connect to AIS at all. Next day I went back to them and they set me up with a new sim and a dual sim deal where I could use the two phones on the same number. The difference being that I could only use one at a time by activating that specific phone's sim as needed at that time. And of course, my 3G had the larger sim and the 4s the micro.

The 3G had, and to this day has, no problems, good reception, 4 - 5 bars. But the 4s had the same "no signal" message all the time. At times when I was away from my home, I would get a signal on the 4s, but at home it was a no-go. Of course I considered there was a signal issue in my area from AIS. But then why would the 3G have constant 4 - 5 bar signals??

After dealing with swapping the two phones for a week or two, I went to another phone provider with my problem. DTAC is the #2 company here, and I was willing to change if my problems were solved using their service. Well, after they set me up with their DTAC sim, I had a strong 4 - 5 bar signal, but I knew trying it at home would be the test. When I got home, I was happily surprised to see a signal there. It was weaker, 2 - (sometimes) 4 bars, but at least there was a signal!

I called a friend to test it out, and he told me that my voice was breaking up and he couldn't hear me most of the time. All the while I was showing 2 - 4 bars signal strength. And, when I'm away from my home, there seems to be no problem at all, which I find very strange. It suggested a reception problem at my home area, even though I was showing what should be an adequate signal strength. But all the while my old 3G (still using AIS) was absolutely fine.

I've tried every tip and trick related in this thread. I tried the 'turn off 3G' thing (which when I did I totally lost my signal!), I tried the 'show caller ID' thing (which for some reason will show it's ON, and sometimes show it's OFF) and it doesn't seem to matter either way. I've re-set the network, re-set the phone, updated to iOS 5.1 and all to no avail.

Beyond the obvious frustrations of buying a $850 phone that's crap, it is even more maddening that Apple has neither fixed the problem - or even acknowledged that there is (or isn't?) one! What kind of company can treat customers that way and stay successful??

Anyhow, that's my story. And I may have omitted or forgotten to relate some specifics here, but feel free to post a reply or question in response. I am NOT happy with Apple right now, and their stuff was something I always heartily recommended to friends and colleagues in the past. If this doesn't get resolved soon, I will trash both the phone and my new MacBook and buy another mfr's product just for spite! And I have a sneaking suspicion that the ultimate fix for all our 4s problems, will be that we'll have to purchase a new iPhone 5 when that's out! Grrrrr!!!!

After SIX replacement iPhone 4Ss, almost as many completely fresh new OS resets and downloads, all the latest OS updates, new SIM, and trying all the "tricks" recommended in this forum - NOTHING has fixed the repeated CALL FAILED and my callers not being able to understand me problems after almost nine months. And since these problems occur anywhere I travel in North America, it is clearly not a local cell tower problem. Also since the unintelligible conversation on the caller's end occurs when I use VOIP APPs like SKYPE, VIBER, and TANGO, but do NOT occur when I use my old iPhone 3G while sitting in the same spot, it is not a carrier or signal problem, but CLEARLY an Apple iPhone 4S problem. And like the above forum post writer and so many others, I am totally disgusted with Apple for not only not addressing problem, but for training their in-store personnel to not acknowledge that there is a problem at all. The only "trick" to overcome the unintelligible conversation that seems to work for me most of the time, is to switch to "Speakerphone" and hold the microphone a few inches from my mouth. Why the tech media refuses to even mention anything about this worldwide problem is a frightening statement about how they are intimidated by the power and influence of Apple. I urge all readers experiencing these ongoing dreadful problems to contact your local and national media tech editors to expose this shameful negligence and arrogance of Apple.

That is me again

So.. I have got a new phone from apple and a new sim from O2.. Apple guys have set the phone as a new phone and I have not even connected the new phone to Itunes.. and guess what? IT STILL DOES NO WORK PROPERLY!! 'Call Failed" and " message could not me delivered"

So, it is not the network, it is not the phone and it is not some problem with backing up from Itunes.. However what I found out is that if I keep the 3G off, it gets better. Someone has mentioned the 3G issue above somewhere, but..... Would that be an option? we buy the most expansive 3G phone in the market, but cannot use the 3G feature? What a joke!!!

well adript and martin if those steps u've done are not working and you're facing the problem then try to update your IPhone software it'll help 100 % because sometimes your iPhone software stopped working but sometimes it shows to much problems................in simple words iPhone 4s needs to update the software with latest iOS and it'll resolve your issue with the passage of time iPhone's software getting slower and slower or some how it would stop and show problems so here is the only solution for your iPhone try to update your iPhone and your problem will resolved.

Thanks Guys.......................😉

Nope. You are totally wrong with this. I am running the latest software, and still have the same problems.

I've posted what may seem to be unrelated info here, but I'm trying to post all the problems I do have, so others can possibly relate to them and comment on some of them.

Here's another recent one:

Today, after having some relatively good luck since switching (sim card) to a different carrier (DTAC) here in Thailand, I had a weird thing happen. I had gone into town to meet up with some friends at another friend's hotel for a few beers. I had no issues with my phone during the day, and no issues with it on the way to that hotel. When I got there, I wanted to use the hotel's wifi and went to log onto their system.

I noticed then that I had a 'no signal' message in the top left corner from my phone service. Up until I had gotten there it was fine. I tried to reset the network settings, did a soft reset, tried a hard reset, and had no luck with either. I put the phone into airplane mode for the time being as not to drain my battery while the phone searched for a signal.

When I left there a couple hours later, I walked down the street to a friend's bar. It was literally 50 meters down the same street where I had been. When I checked the phone and moved it out of airplane mode, there was a good strong signal from my phone carrier that I didn't have just 50 meters up the road from where I now was.

From all my observations to this point, there seems to be a definite problem concerning signal reception related to the phone itself, and unrelated to the carrier. It's good in some places, non-existent in others. It's strong at times, and 'no signal' at other times. That's not a carrier problem, that's a phone problem. Conclusively proven by the fact that I'm still getting a consistently strong signal with my old 3G phone on my old carrier, which I had to scrap with the new 4s because it was giving me a constant 'no signal'.

And I still say (mark my words!) that Apple will continue to let us suffer with our over-priced iPod 4s's, until they come out with a new iPhone and expect us to shell out for that when it comes. There's no way that I believe that they're looking into solving this problem, while they are most likely focused on getting their new product out there to fleece the unsuspecting consumers into spending yet more, more, and more!

Way to go Apple.

have you called O2 and told them to update your profile on their end. they should know that you're using an iphone 4s and add that info to your profile. often what carriers will do is reset your profile, and then manually add your imei (phones unique electronic identifier number), and your sim card number, and delete all previous records of prior phones you've had on your account. this tells the network exactly which phone is connected to your account, and could possibly fix your problem. carriers treat iphones different from all other phones on their network, and sometimes use special settings specifically for iphones. as a last resort i would call o2 and find out of they could reset your settings on their side, and then manually enter your info into their system. it still sounds network related to me... hope that helps.

Apple_iPhone4

Thanks a lot

I have done all that.... to be precise.. 3 times. At one point, O2 disconected me completely for 24 hours. And the problem persisted.

I still did not connected my iphone to Itunes and did not up date it. I have done everything everyone mentioned above.. Nothing works...

Well.. as long as I do not turn the 3G on, the phone works just fine.

Yeah Lambo, therein lies my rub. I bought the phone in the US, but live in Thailand. There are no 'official' Apple stores here in Thailand, and shipping it back (and possibly forth and back and forth and...) to the US is just not practical for me. Not to mention that Thailand doesn't have the best postal service reputation, but that's another story. 😠

Ironically, I felt more comfortable buying the phone in the US while I was there, than buying it here for the very reason that if I had problems with it here I wouldn't get reliable service. Live and learn... or as my friend always said, Pay and Learn!

Thanks for that link, I'll check it out. 🙂