Help Data not working with voice any longer

Kevin-B · Mar 10, 2015

Just recently, my Turbo won't let me navigate while I'm talking on the phone. This is new behavior (but see point 3 below), and it's very bad. If someone calls me when I'm in an unfamiliar area, I have to pull over to the side of the road until the call ends, since navigation stops dead.

Some additional info, if you think you might know what's going on:

Today a message appeared saying something about no data while on the phone, and I permanently dismissed it. Should have read it better, but of course I was driving ...
I'm on a prepaid plan. I know "advanced calling" doesn't work for Verizon Prepaid. But I was also prepaid on the Maxx and took calls while navigating, web searching, etc all the time.
Actually, it's a brand new Turbo, so the behavior may be Turbo-specific. I just upgraded from a Maxx that died. But I assumed that Maxx and Turbo would behave pretty much identically. I suppose this might be a specific limitation of the Turbo that I didn't notice in its first five days. If so, I need to return it ASAP!

This is just weird. I've navigated and talked on the phone (hands-free, of course) forever on all Android phones. But no longer.

Thanks for any thoughts.

doogald · Mar 10, 2015

The turbo is different from most every previous Verizon android phone in that it cannot do voice calls and data on LTE at the same time unless you use volte. You bought the wrong phone.

You probably want to return it for a galaxy s5, an HTC one, an LG g3, or even a Maxx. Or buy a Verizon Internet wifi hotspot and use that for data if you really want to use the turbo.

Or maybe buy a third party navigation app that uses downloaded maps. I don't know of any of those exist, but perhaps they do...

Kevin-B · Mar 11, 2015

Doogald: Great info, and a huge disappointment! I do like my Motorola phone, its enormous battery, and call quality. Verizon no longer sell the 32 Mb Maxx ....

So if I understand the ramifications:

I must use "Advance Calling" (Verizon's name for Voice Over LTE?) to get data and voice at the same time. (Unless I want to try one of the workarounds you kindly thought of!)
To get "Advanced Calling" I have to move off my prepaid plan. Which is OK, though a bit more expensive.
Then with VOLTE my calls will count against my data minutes on my plan. (In fact, if I remember right, I can't switch back to regular voice after the data session ends, because the "Advanced Calling" would drop the call. So the call is stuck consuming data until I hang it up.)

Am I understanding this correctly?

Sarcastic question: in what way is this "Advanced" -- since it removes a feature I've enjoyed without hassle for years?

doogald · Mar 11, 2015

The last one isn't right. Advanced calling calls count against your voice plan, not data plan, except for video calls. Only video calls count against your data plan, and they can be used on wifi rather than mobile data.

Everything else is right.

Having two cell radios working at the same time required more battery power and a more complicated phone design. Otherwise I'm not sure I can comment on Verizon's motivation.

Kevin-B · Mar 11, 2015

Doogald: You nailed it. Thanks for the counsel. For their own reasons, on the Turbo Verizon blocks simultaneous 4g data and voice on Prepaid accounts. (Not true on previous phones, so I guess that's "progress" in Verizon-land.)

Armed with this knowledge, I converted my prepaid Turbo to postpaid/non-contract (at the same monthly rate, though data overages are 3x as costly) and all was well. The process took 2 hours in the Verizon store, but was fine. I'd have preferred not to go to the store, but the people on the Verizon phone number quickly revealed themselves to be clueless. It was faster to spend the extra hour going to the store.

mistermojorizi · Mar 26, 2015

Nice thread, this is good info. I have the droid maxx and it won't do 3g/data simultaneously either, but I was always told that 4g/data would work the same.

I guess my question is this: is there always VOLTE when you have 4g on postpaid? OR do you sometimes have problems getting 4g/simultaneous data on post paid as well?

Kevin-B · Mar 26, 2015

MisterMojorizi: I never had any trouble with simultaneous voice and data on my Maxx, even prior to the VOLTE "upgrade". Don't know what to tell you about that.

I have been using the VOLTE / Advanced calling / HD Voice feature (yes, it has three different names) for the last two weeks on postpaid, and have not noticed any outages, but that's probably not a sufficient sample since I don't get a lot of calls.

The marketing materials from Verizon lead you to believe that VOLTE runs wherever 4G is available, which is logical. However, I don't rely on Verizon's marketing materials, since they generally contradict each other and their web site, and nobody in the store seemed to know much about VOLTE.

mistermojorizi · Mar 28, 2015

Thanks for the reply, fair enough. I always felt like I had no issues with the maxx simultaneous voice/data either (i do it for like 40 minutes every day while I commute through some country roads), but then I forced the phone into 3g and noticed that in 3g, it would not work. Turns out that's because it uses EVDO for CDMA, like most verizon phones do, and to be able to get simultaneous voice / data over 3g, it needs to get SVDO (sorry I'm a phone nerd that's been hacking verizon phones since the late 90s).

So why didn't I notice? Because the phone gets 4g often enough even in the boonies for me not to notice it. When it kicks down to 3g, it doesn't drop the call, the traffic/police data just stops updating on Waze until it regains 4g. So just curious if the Turbo would work the same way...or if there'd be issues either because it wouldn't get the VOLTE even though it'd have the 4g, or because it would drop the call or something when kicking down to 3g. I've heard the single antenna vs multiple antenna explanation, and I don't quite understand how that changes things (since the maxx in my experiment couldn't do simultaneous voice/data over 3g either).

Kevin-B said:
MisterMojorizi: I never had any trouble with simultaneous voice and data on my Maxx, even prior to the VOLTE "upgrade". Don't know what to tell you about that.

I have been using the VOLTE / Advanced calling / HD Voice feature (yes, it has three different names) for the last two weeks on postpaid, and have not noticed any outages, but that's probably not a sufficient sample since I don't get a lot of calls.

The marketing materials from Verizon lead you to believe that VOLTE runs wherever 4G is available, which is logical. However, I don't rely on Verizon's marketing materials, since they generally contradict each other and their web site, and nobody in the store seemed to know much about VOLTE.

doogald · Mar 28, 2015

The turbo can't do voice and data on 3g. It can on LTE only with VoLTE. However, if you're on a call on volte and drop down to cdma the turbo will drop the call. The Maxx without volte can switch between lte and 3g while you are on a call without dropping UNLESS you have volte turned on.

I hope that's not confusing...

Basically, the Maxx can run connections to cdma calls and lte data at the same time. The turbo cannot. And, as you said, neither can do cdma calls and 3g (evdo) data at the same time. Only a few Verizon phones ever had SVDO; the Maxx was not one of them.

Atif Usmani · Mar 29, 2015

Dear Doogald

I inquired you earlier regarding simultaneous Data and Calling on Non - Verizon 3G networks worldwide ( I am using it in Pakistan on local Ufone GSM/ 3G network) and you replied that GSM networks can handle voice and data simultaneously ... but here I get a feeling that I may not be able to get simultaneous data and calling on my 3G based network??? Please clarify this confusion

doogald · Mar 29, 2015

I have no idea whether you can get voice and data in Pakistan. All that I know is that networks that use cdma for 3g cannot do voice and data without special radios on the phone that the Maxx does not have. GSM networks, at least in the US, have enough bandwidth to carry voice and data at the same time on 3G. It was a marketing point made for years by AT&T (gsm) against Verizon (cdma).

mistermojorizi · Mar 30, 2015

doogald said:
However, if you're on a call on volte and drop down to cdma the turbo will drop the call. The Maxx without volte can switch between lte and 3g while you are on a call without dropping UNLESS you have volte turned on.

I hope that's not confusing...

That makes sense, thank you. They should have made it where it would stop the data rather than the call.

Kevin-B · Mar 30, 2015

mistermojorizi said:
They should have made it where it would stop the data rather than the call.

Amen to that. OR: make it so the user gets to choose which gets dropped! But Verizon doesn't care for its prisoners to have any choices ...

doogald · Mar 30, 2015

mistermojorizi said:
That makes sense, thank you. They should have made it where it would stop the data rather than the call.

There is probably some technical reason why it's now impossible to hand off between volte IP calls and cdma carried cell calls.

Help Data not working with voice any longer

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