You had One Job TMobile - Connect My Call

[FrgMstr]

You make a phone call, it rings and no one ever picks up. You would think that the person is not there to take the call and likely that their voicemail is broken. In the case of T-Mobile, you may have just been getting a fake ring tone. The FCC thinks so, and while T-Mobile is soaking up a $40M fine for this, it claims the fake rings were an unintentional oversight. You can read the court order here.


T-Mobile admitted to inserting fake ring tones into “hundreds of millions” of the doomed calls, presumably to make the caller believe either that the phone was ringing at the receiver’s residence or business (and, presumably, that no one was picking up), or that the local terminating carrier was at fault, according to the agency.

 

[the-one1]

I have had this happen to me many many times before on Verizon. When I was married, she would call me and it would ring and ring. I would get bitched at later for not picking up the phone and accusing me of ignoring her. Still happens to this day. Hence "was" married.

 

[Rahh]

 

[Dekoth-E-]

Verizon pulls this same shit all the damn time. I long ago lost count of the number of times I've called someone and it "rings" endlessly and never triggers a voicemail..on phones I know good and damn well have voicemail.

 

[katanaD]

I have had this happen to me many many times before on Verizon. When I was married, she would call me and it would ring and ring. I would get bitched at later for not picking up the phone and accusing me of ignoring her. Still happens to this day. Hence "was" married.

hmmm, sounds like verizon did you a favor

 

[Stimpy88]

I can tell you with confidence that this scam is pulled by most, if not all the other networks in the entire world.

I travel, and have experienced this in my own country, in the EU and many others too. Does not matter weather you are roaming or not, or if the network you are using is yours or not, you still end up having to call twice. Brand, model or age of your phone also make no difference, neither does signal strength or time of day.

The only way to actually stop this, would be to make connection charges illegal. Hopefully the EU will do that soon.

 

[DukenukemX]

That might explain a lot of my problems.

 

[Darunion]

I have had this happen on AT&T as well. Same thing, wife calls and it rings and rings but my phone never recorded it. hell texts still do the same thing now and then.

 

[cjcox]

Wouldn't be surprised if all of them do this. I've caught Sprint doing this as well.

 

[c3k]

I also think that Google has me on their conservative watch list and have therefore injected a different autocorrect into my Android phone. Effing thing is gonna give me a rage stroke. I think that’s their plan.

Someone should investigate that.

 

[FrgMstr]

I also think that Google has me on their conservative watch list and have therefore injected a different autocorrect into my Android phone. Effing thing is gonna give me a rage stroke. I think that’s their plan.

Someone should investigate that.

Tell me more. I gotta hear this.

 

[darckhart]

See people were upset because it was only the fake ringtone. If they had gone one step further and added an automatic voicemail telling the recipient to callback the caller, everything would be cool.

 

[viscountalpha]

I have never had a fake ring tone issue. I've had people in dialed not hear a ring tone but there's a damned fine reason for me to default to texting.

 

[bugleyman]

I also think that Google has me on their conservative watch list and have therefore injected a different autocorrect into my Android phone. Effing thing is gonna give me a rage stroke. I think that’s their plan.

Someone should investigate that.

Sarcasm? Or



?

Cannot tell.

 

[vegeta535]

I also think that Google has me on their conservative watch list and have therefore injected a different autocorrect into my Android phone. Effing thing is gonna give me a rage stroke. I think that’s their plan.

Someone should investigate that.

Idk. I think Google auto correct is just shit. I been having issuse with it on my Pixel 2xl. Like I am 100% sure I tapped the right one and get something different.

 

[Deleted member 88301]

Yeah, and none of that $40,000,000 will ever be paid out to T-Mobile customers. And T-Mobile will find a way to get the money deducted from their taxes.

 

[toast0]

Idk. I think Google auto correct is just shit. I been having issuse with it on my Pixel 2xl. Like I am 100% sure I tapped the right one and get something different.

I'm pretty sure they updated it recently, I assumed they were making it bad because I turned off the 'phone home to google for everything I type' option in the keyboard (I'm sure the OS level one is still active).

 

[scojer]

Yeah, and none of that $40,000,000 will ever be paid out to T-Mobile customers. And T-Mobile will find a way to get the money deducted from their taxes.

It'll go to the FCC.

 

[opfreak]

Well they are the UNcarrier

 

[Deleted member 88301]

The fix is in. Corporations rule the country. And they will determine who the next idiot will be El Presidente, Leader of The Free World.

 

[IcePickFreak]

It'll go to the FCC.

Time to hand out the bonuses!

 

[mullet]

The first thing I turn off is Autocorrect.

 

[gunbust3r]

Wait so this is my understanding. You place a call using your service T-Mobile to someone not on T-Mobile. It begins playing the ring sound for user experience (better than dead air), T-Mobile tries to hand off to some podunk SIP trunk. Fails for whatever reason, not necessarily on T-Mobiles end. You get voicemail.

Not really seeing the big deal here.

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

they put the ringing tone in as people were confused as to why their is dead air before the call is actually connected (while the cell provider is looking for the tower, other handset to connect to, etc.)

 

[Bielzebuddha]

I have had this happen on AT&T as well. Same thing, wife calls and it rings and rings but my phone never recorded it. hell texts still do the same thing now and then.

What's SUPPOSED to be happening, is the second you hit "send", the phone company immediately puts out a signal looking for the called number. First it determines if it's on the network or someone else's network, or part of POTS; then it directs the call towards the intended destination. All this happens in the first second or two (amazing, huh?).

While the system is hunting for the number, it begins ringing, because how many of you ADD-addled millennials are gonna wait listening to dead air (none)? Often, tho, the system is still hunting.

If it finds the number, it connects, no problem. However, occasionally, it cannot find the destination number on the network, and a decision has to be made: voice mail or "not available" message, either of which will happen about as often as the other.

And this doesn't even begin to discuss network problems, tower problems, equipment problems. Hell, in Wisconsin on I95, my number would get locked on a tower in the middle of the state, and the tower just refused to release it, almost all the way to the Minnesota border. Talk about utterly fucking up my day.

What I'm NOT seeing in these reports is if the carriers are doing this & charging the customers for the connection. If so, that's a problem, & it should stop. I never had that issue because I had unlimited everything (att), and never had to worry about it.

 

[Bielzebuddha]

Lefties don’t face this blatant manipulation of keyboard accuracy, sensitivity, or autocorrect hell.

Nah, we just gotta put up with you and your ilk.

 

[c3k]

Nah, we just gotta put up with you and your ilk.

I'll assume you mis-typed something there. I mean, no true "liberal" would ever try to shut down a viewpoint "diverse" from theirs, right?

 

[Uvaman2]

I have had this happen to me many many times before on Verizon. When I was married, she would call me and it would ring and ring. I would get bitched at later for not picking up the phone and accusing me of ignoring her. Still happens to this day. Hence "was" married.

I have had this happen on AT&T as well. Same thing, wife calls and it rings and rings but my phone never recorded it. hell texts still do the same thing now and then.

Yeah yeah, I am sure this happens the most to married men while in bed with the side piece.

 

[c3k]

Yeah yeah, I am sure this happens the most to married men while in bed with the side piece.

Or the opposite: calls and texts from strange women who assume a familiarity. Huh, she must think I'm someone else...

 

[Darunion]

Yeah yeah, I am sure this happens the most to married men while in bed with the side piece.

Nah, when my wife buys me a vive headset for xmas and she spent her tax money on a new handgun, don't really see the need for a side piece anymore.

On the reverse, it is creepy when you call someone and it is an almost instant connection so you hit dial and then here "hello?" within a second, its like I mentally need the ring first to prepare me for conversation haha.

 

[kju1]

Yeah yeah, I am sure this happens the most to married men while in bed with the side piece.

Not if your wife is there with you!

 

[Exavior]

Wait so this is my understanding. You place a call using your service T-Mobile to someone not on T-Mobile. It begins playing the ring sound for user experience (better than dead air), T-Mobile tries to hand off to some podunk SIP trunk. Fails for whatever reason, not necessarily on T-Mobiles end. You get voicemail.

Not really seeing the big deal here.

You don't see the big deal here because you don't understand some of the issues faced by telephone companies. There is an issue known as least cost routing. Basically instead of ensuring they have good connections to everyone many companies just pass calls to the cheapest option they can find and if the call connects then great, if not then fuck you not their problem. By having fake ring tone they can tell their customers "Well you heard it ringing correct? So the problem isn't on our side it is the other side is rejecting your call." For a month a certain cell phone company had issues where their customers were not able to call any of our customers. It was because they were routing the calls to nowhere but then kept trying to say that we were rejecting all calls from them. This also plays into routing issues where the call will finally get there. You call Joe's Pizza shack, you hear it ring 9 times, however it didn't start to ring on Joe's Pizza Shack's side till ring 8. First off you are going to say that they aren't answering the phone and hang up before then. The real issue is that least cost routing is sending the call all over and adding a massive delay however since they are adding in a fake ring you don't know that is happening. If you heard dead air you would be calling your phone company and reporting trouble trying to call a number and they would have to fix their least cost routing to ensure the call completes in a more timely manor. Once that happens they lose money so they want to be able to feed their customers bullshit to keep most of them thinking the other person is just slow or that the issue is on the other end. This actually is a finable offense. Comcast and others have paid millions in fines for this.

You are trying to say that it isn't T-Mobile's fault it fails going to the poduck sip trunk, however they are the ones that decided to use that because it cost them say 2 cents a minute on that trunk instead of 2.5 cents a minute on one that would actually work. So they would rather save the .5 cents a minute and let poduck telco handle all of their calls going out.

 

[Spaceninja]

I am on AT&T and have issues with texts being late. By late I mean a week late. If my now ex girlfriend would send me a text while she was at work it may or may not go through. We even compared conversation logs because of this. It came up when I asked her a question and she never answered it. Wasn't a big event I just asked when I got home from work. Then I found out she had sent all kinds of stuff I never got, or I would get some random text out of the blue that had nothing to do with the current conversation. It happens now with a friend of mine who is on Verizon. I may or may not get their messages.

 

[scojer]

What I'm NOT seeing in these reports is if the carriers are doing this & charging the customers for the connection. If so, that's a problem, & it should stop. I never had that issue because I had unlimited everything (att), and never had to worry about it.

T-Mobile doesn't charge for calls unless it's international.

 

[Bielzebuddha]

I'll assume you mis-typed something there. I mean, no true "liberal" would ever try to shut down a viewpoint "diverse" from theirs, right?

Nah, I said what I meant.

 

[c3k]

Nah, I said what I meant.

Yeah. And the sad thing is that I knew you'd be easily offended.

 

[Bielzebuddha]

Yeah. And the sad thing is that I knew you'd be easily offended.

I'm not gonna shit on Kyle's forum here, you're not worth the electrons.

 

[toast0]

T-Mobile doesn't charge for calls unless it's international.

I get 100 minutes a month, and 0.10/minute after that from T-Mobile. And I went over recently, because I had to talk to a different phone company

 

[Exavior]

I get 100 minutes a month, and 0.10/minute after that from T-Mobile. And I went over recently, because I had to talk to a different phone company

they had you on the phone for over 100 minutes?

 

[toast0]

they had you on the phone for over 100 minutes?

Yeah, most of it waiting for them to pick up while being told how important my call was, and that I could take care of things online (which I couldn't, apparently Simple Link, or whatever they called it wasn't actually simple). The part where they transferred me to three people who couldn't do what I needed and then dumped me back at the original queue was a nice touch and reminded me how nice it is to talk to a phone company.