It sounds like a satellite phone.
October 12, 2010 3:37 PM Subscribe
A week and a half ago, I bought an iPhone 4, thus switching to AT&T for the first time. Now, when people call me on the iPhone, there is a lag of a couple of seconds between when I stop talking and when they hear me, or vice-versa. The result of this is that we end up talking over one another, or saying "HELLO?" to one another, thinking that they other has not heard what I/they just said, when we are really just waiting out the delay.
The problem seems less bad when the incoming call to the iPhone is coming from a land line.
Any ideas what might be causing this, and how to rectify it?
Thanks.
The problem seems less bad when the incoming call to the iPhone is coming from a land line.
Any ideas what might be causing this, and how to rectify it?
Thanks.
You can download this ATT app and report the issue when it occurs.
I have no idea if it matters if you do this or not. But I always do it and I keep hoping someday, somehow, things will improve. And I will have helped.
posted by jeffamaphone at 4:01 PM on October 12, 2010
I have no idea if it matters if you do this or not. But I always do it and I keep hoping someday, somehow, things will improve. And I will have helped.
posted by jeffamaphone at 4:01 PM on October 12, 2010
I have an iPhone 4 on a Canadian carrier and have never had this issue, whiuch suggests that this may be an AT&T issue, not an Apple one.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:15 PM on October 12, 2010
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:15 PM on October 12, 2010
have a captivate (android), it used to happen to me. it went away, however, i have been updating the OS.
posted by maulik at 4:18 PM on October 12, 2010
posted by maulik at 4:18 PM on October 12, 2010
I had problems with my iPhone in the beginning, (different problem). I had Apple Care and they swapped it out for me. I kept track of my case i.d. numbers and it wasn't much of a hassle.
posted by 6:1 at 4:58 PM on October 12, 2010
posted by 6:1 at 4:58 PM on October 12, 2010
I had an iPhone for awhile and I had a similar issue - sometimes, when I talked to certain people - my dad, mostly - and one doctor's office - I would hear my own words echoed back to me in a delay of a couple of seconds.
Obviously this was irritating, but what I found really interesting was that when this happened I experienced a weird kind of brain-lock. I would become simply unable to speak. It was such a disorienting experience.
If I instigated the call, this wasn't an issue. It only happened on incoming calls.
Anyway, I just learned to live with it.
You have a couple of options.
If you know someone else with AT&T you can swap SIM cards and perform an experiment. If the lag goes away, you know it's some sort of issue with your phone (which I find unlikely). Then you can take it back and good luck with that conversation but it's something to try anyway. You could get another iPhone and the same thing could happen - all phones have different radio designs and so on and so forth and maybe it's some weird confluence of factors.
You could also call AT&T. Maybe people in your area have complained about this issue before and there's some sort of knowledge base. I also find this unlikely.
posted by kbanas at 5:03 PM on October 12, 2010
Obviously this was irritating, but what I found really interesting was that when this happened I experienced a weird kind of brain-lock. I would become simply unable to speak. It was such a disorienting experience.
If I instigated the call, this wasn't an issue. It only happened on incoming calls.
Anyway, I just learned to live with it.
You have a couple of options.
If you know someone else with AT&T you can swap SIM cards and perform an experiment. If the lag goes away, you know it's some sort of issue with your phone (which I find unlikely). Then you can take it back and good luck with that conversation but it's something to try anyway. You could get another iPhone and the same thing could happen - all phones have different radio designs and so on and so forth and maybe it's some weird confluence of factors.
You could also call AT&T. Maybe people in your area have complained about this issue before and there's some sort of knowledge base. I also find this unlikely.
posted by kbanas at 5:03 PM on October 12, 2010
I have an iPhone 3 and this has been happening since I upgraded the OS. Drives me crazy!
posted by bq at 5:32 PM on October 12, 2010
posted by bq at 5:32 PM on October 12, 2010
I find I only have this problem when talking to people on land lines. Since that only consists of my mother and one Luddite friend, I mostly ignore it. But yeah, it's irritating.
posted by MexicanYenta at 5:37 PM on October 12, 2010
posted by MexicanYenta at 5:37 PM on October 12, 2010
I have AT&T, through three phones now, and have had this issue on and off.
It only ever happens with people on T-Mobile, and certain landlines- like cheap or broken office phone systems. And various cheap bastards with crap VOIP providers. NEVER happens with people on straight-up vanilla home phones, with non- T-Mobile cell phone users, and good, commercial VOIP.
Part of the issue is that there is [something] on analog lines that can fail and cause the echo to improperly generate. It has to do with the physical wire somewhere.
Also, if you are using any of the Google-voice kinds of call forwarding dealies, that can add some serious lag.
posted by gjc at 5:51 PM on October 12, 2010
It only ever happens with people on T-Mobile, and certain landlines- like cheap or broken office phone systems. And various cheap bastards with crap VOIP providers. NEVER happens with people on straight-up vanilla home phones, with non- T-Mobile cell phone users, and good, commercial VOIP.
Part of the issue is that there is [something] on analog lines that can fail and cause the echo to improperly generate. It has to do with the physical wire somewhere.
Also, if you are using any of the Google-voice kinds of call forwarding dealies, that can add some serious lag.
posted by gjc at 5:51 PM on October 12, 2010
Response by poster: Hi everyone. Thanks for the replies. To be clear, I am not hearing an echo. There is just such a delay after whoever is speaking finishes speaking that we are talking all over one another.
posted by 4ster at 5:54 PM on October 12, 2010
posted by 4ster at 5:54 PM on October 12, 2010
Try switching the 3G off so you are using edge. My voice calls in my area are h better when 3G is turned off.
posted by jmsta at 7:04 PM on October 12, 2010
posted by jmsta at 7:04 PM on October 12, 2010
High levels of latency are inevitable in (digital) cell phone conversations. Usually you don't notice the half second delay because you're not standing in the same room as someone else.
It happens because the codecs used to compress the audio stream are rather complex. Needless to say, the inherent delay is about twice as high when it's a cellphone-to-cellphone call and not a cellphone-to-landline call.
If it really is a couple of seconds, that's incredibly out of the ordinary and something is either broken with the network in your area or with your phone. I suggest testing with another at&t phone first, and if that doesn't fix it, call at&t and file a trouble ticket. It would be best if you could actually time the delay so they can't say "oh, some delay is normal," as I just did. ;)
posted by wierdo at 9:01 PM on October 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
It happens because the codecs used to compress the audio stream are rather complex. Needless to say, the inherent delay is about twice as high when it's a cellphone-to-cellphone call and not a cellphone-to-landline call.
If it really is a couple of seconds, that's incredibly out of the ordinary and something is either broken with the network in your area or with your phone. I suggest testing with another at&t phone first, and if that doesn't fix it, call at&t and file a trouble ticket. It would be best if you could actually time the delay so they can't say "oh, some delay is normal," as I just did. ;)
posted by wierdo at 9:01 PM on October 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I just tried it with two people calling me from Verizon phones, and there was no problem. So far, the problem seems to happen only when people call me from Sprint/Virgin phones.
posted by 4ster at 7:21 AM on October 13, 2010
posted by 4ster at 7:21 AM on October 13, 2010
Response by poster: Well it seems to have gone away on its own, so there you have it. Thanks for the replies!
posted by 4ster at 5:58 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by 4ster at 5:58 AM on October 14, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, there is sometimes an echo problem. We've all chalked it up to a transmission issue with AT&T.
posted by ericb at 3:52 PM on October 12, 2010