Cell phone has no cellular service in area map shows full coverage

General Discussions
#1

I recently added a Nexus 5X to our family’s already-existing Republic lines. The phone works fine on wifi but we need it to also work for making calls on a cellular network because, really, that’s the POINT of a cell phone. Every time the phone tries to make a call when not on wifi, the phone rings on the other end but the call is immediately dropped when answered. The phone also says it has no cellular network connection and to seek an area with wifi. I’m not sure if it helps, but under settings it says that my data is “in service” but under cellular network state I am “disconnected.” This seems like it is likely a problem with settings but no amount of poking at settings has fixed it so far.

Please note that none of this is attempting to use cellular DATA, roaming or otherwise – we haven’t even gotten to the point of being able to make simple voice calls when not on wifi.

I’ve been trying to solve this problem with Republic for the past 4 days. It takes a day or two every time for someone to get back with me, and when they do, it’s a stock answer that they must not have coverage in our area and that I can return the phone. The map they link, however, shows fully blanketed coverage (partially talk and text, mostly full 4G LTE data) in the area in which we are trying to use it – Lancaster, KY – and a wide radius around it. Map: Coverage Check | Republic Wireless Since lack of coverage clearly isn’t the problem, according to their own map, I want to do further troubleshooting, but I can’t get the same person from one time to the next so that we can make any progress.

Advice on what to try next would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

#2

Republic maps are optimistic at best

talk and text area are roaming areas

from T-Mobile native map (Republic GSM Partner the area looks like fair coverage and lots of Roaming)

4G LTE Coverage Map | Check Your 4G LTE Cell Phone Coverage | T-Mobile

click to enlarge

their partner maps Personal Coverage Check

click to enlarge

#3

Thanks, drm. Question: when you say ‘talk and text are roaming areas,’ shouldn’t that still mean that talk should work? It’s just voice, not data.

#4

One very specific pinpoint where not even voice will work, even though it’s showing up as solid green on the map: 200 Stanford Street, Lancaster, KY.

#5

Roaming itself can be hit and miss with many factored involved coverage does change based on a bunch of factors (including time of day)

the roaming partner may have a weak coverage of the area also

the roaming partner may work there some time just not all the time, but I would expect Roaming to work where it said it does

#6

that point shows up on T-mobile map as fair coverage as other on this forum have observed fair means no indoor coverage and hit and miss out door coverage

do you have VoLTE turn on your phone some areas are only severed by VoLTE on band 12

#7

He went outside repeatedly to try, so indoors wasn’t the problem.

I’m not sure about VoLTE. Do you know how I check for that?

Thanks again for all of your awesome help.

#8

Thanks. So that sounds like yes, coverage could be hit and miss, but that voice should in fact work?

Maybe the next step is to check the map for somewhere reasonably local with the darkest rose colored coverage and go test there. I’ve been assuming the problem was with phone settings, but if you’re right and coverage is that spotty even where it shows it should have voice coverage, then maybe that’s the issue.

#9

Looked at your area LTE and CDMA maps earlier and saw that many areas appear to be the GSM providers partners and the rest 4G fair. My recent RW 3.0 GSM experience has shown me that “fair” can range from good voice and 4G data to no or intermittent voice call service even in the so called “verified by customer” hexagons. Have yet to venture into partner areas on the map. It obviously appears using current CDMA check that RW’s 3.0 CDMA service would work when/if it’s introduced to the public…

#10

I can attest that at least 1.0 and 2.0 Republic CDMA service works throughout the area, since CDMA is what we have on our two current Republic phones. I’d give 3.0 CDMA a try gladly if it were available.

If service coverage is indeed the issue, I am extremely unhappy with Republic. It was logical to assume that since I had two phones from them that work in our area, a third phone would work pretty much as well as (if not better than) those two… that appears to be not the case.

Also, it seems to me that it’d be a lot more useful to have honest maps than over-optimistic ones. Don’t tell people you have voice coverage for an area unless you do, in fact, have voice coverage. Cell phone operating as a cell phone is a basic necessity.

I’ll be taking the phone travelling around this weekend and can test to see definitively whether we can acquire cell service in a darkest-color service area, which should tell us whether that’s the issue or whether there is indeed a settings problem.

#11

@dinah.6tsrl1 TMobile lists the instructions for voLTE here. VoLTE settings: Android | T-Mobile Support

#12

Thanks. According to that list, Nexus 5X isn’t one of the supported devices.

#13

TMobile doesn’t do customer support for any phone that they don’t sell. So I suspect they never tested the phone and never listed it.

Anyhow, I would see if the Nexus 6 instructions are the same for your phone.

I would also get Republic’s support team on this too if you are still experiencing issues. Use the chat line for faster service. Republic Help

#14

Update: we took the phone to an area with strong native GSM coverage, but it was still unable to send texts or make calls. Following the advice I found on these boards, I then powered the phone completely off and turned it back on again. That did the trick, and it was finally able to operate for calls, texts, and even data.

Unfortunately, it still doesn’t work in Lancaster, KY, even though Republic’s map shows solid blanket coverage of the entire town and a few miles surrounding it, partially 4G LTE but voice and text at a minimum. We tested the phone in numerous locations throughout Lancaster, however, including ones that show up as 4G LTE, and were not able to make calls or send texts.

Republic’s support ticket people have continued to be almost obnoxiously unhelpful. I replied to the help ticket with an update that included a jpg of the coverage map zoomed in on a specific street address in Lancaster, KY, and the representative replied by telling me to please check the coverage map to see if the address was covered and gave me a link to it. A link to THE SAME MAP I HAD SENT.

The next step will be trying to adjust VoLTE settings. I meant to do that last night but the phone didn’t make it home until about 10:30pm, so that’s on tonight’s agenda.

#15

Further update: when I attempted to adjust VoLTE settings, I found that the correct settings were already in place. However, in the process of comparing the information show under ‘sim status’ with the older Republic phone I had with me, I realized that the new phone seemed to be stuck on UMTS rather than ever using LTE, even though LTE was set as the preferred standard. Given that the maps (not just Republic’s or T-mobile’s, but also 3rd party maps such as sensorly.com) indicated that I should have service in that area but I knew that it was specifically an LTE area, I began to wonder if that was the problem. In that specific testing location, the phone still showed as not connected to cellular service and could not make or receive calls or texts even though signal strength was consistently better than on the older phone (around -75dBm) and the phone showed full bars plus an H. I adjusted every relevant setting I could find but had no success in shifting it.

Recalling how I solved the previous problem by rebooting the phone in an area with strong native GSM coverage, I next drove a short distance away and rebooted the phone again. When it powered back up it connected via HSPA+ and, lo and behold, could make and receive both calls and texts! Hoping that had solved the problem, I then drove back to Lancaster, and without rebooting again, the phone FINALLY connected to the LTE network there.

For the rest of the evening we were able to use the phone reasonably, with both voice and text working all over town and even outside of it except in areas you’d expect poor coverage according to the maps. I will continue to test over the next few days but I do believe the problem is solved.

The only glitch at this point is that somehow in the course of all of that settings readjustment, driving around, rebooting, and rinse-lather-repeat to attempt to get voice and text to work, we connected to data as well and something called com.qualcomm.timeservice drained the entire 1GB data allowance before we even realized what was happening. Next on the agenda is figuring out what that is and how to keep it from happening again. Data resets on the 17th and I don’t want it to disappear nearly instantaneously again.

Thanks again to everyone here. I don’t think I would have solved this problem without the discussion boards as a resource. Blaming it on a coverage issue was a much simpler answer than the technical troubleshooting, but thanks to the information found here I knew that it didn’t quite make sense, so I persevered – and it finally paid off.

#16

I just had this very same issue - I went to New Hampshire…ZERO service, nothing at all, nothing unless I was able to connect to free wifi but that’s not the point. Should I have needed to call 911 I was screwed. phone was just a weight in my pocket.!

#17

Hi @pricelessme_ct,

A cell phone (even an inactive one) is supposed to be able to connect to any compatible cell tower for 911 including those it cannot use for ordinary service. When you experienced this, did you happen to to note if the cell signal icon on your phone was completely empty? So long as your phone could see a compatible cell tower (even if you otherwise had no service) a 911 call is supposed to work. More on 911 from Republic here:

If your phone truly showed no access to any cellular tower, may we know where in NH you experienced this?

1 Like
#18

When I say nothing worked. Nothing worked. Paperweight

#19

So, you actually tried calling 911?

#20
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