No Dial when making call on Librem 5

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed something strange, which has become more frequent . . .

The majority of the time when I make a call from my L5 to another phone (happens on Landline or mobile) and I have L5 up to my ear waitinf for the other person to answer I don’t hear the other phone ringing - there is silence until I hear the person answering speak, or the call goes through to voicemail.

As I said, it happens the majority of the time, but not always, and not always when calling the same number on different occasions. For example, yesterday I called my Mom on her landline, which usually I can’t hear ringing, but it rang, then about 20 minutes later I called her again, and that time silence.

It also has no bearing where I am when I make the call.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, how do I fix it?

3 Likes

I experience this behaviour since I’ve got my phone a year ago and find it very annoying because I’m never sure whether the calling process started at all. With my old Nokia N9 and the same German provider it never was a problem.

1 Like

AFAIK does the dialtone not really exist - it mus be generated by the participiants of the call.
So there must be a software piece which give You the artifically ringing sound

3 Likes

I use T-Mobile in the US. When I call another T-Mobile user, I hear no ringing. When I call a Verizon user, I do hear the ringing.

2 Likes

This issue was discussed in this thread. Note what @dos said about it.

From the post:

1 Like

Yepp, as stated above

the dialtone ist created by the carrier/provider and does not really exist. It is only generated for the people who want to hear a confirmation that the call goes really out. But It does NOT signalize that the person who is called really hears a ringtone

1 Like

@leetaur , thanks for the link to the previous thread. I had looked before starting a new thread, but must have missed this one.

I’m in Australia so can’t use AweSIM, and I’m not sure what VoLTE is, and as far as I’m aware it’s not here in Australia (I’ve never heard it mentioned here)

1 Like

Thanks @zash1958

It kind of makes sense what you, and others have said about dialtones being created by the carrier, but that doesn’t (at least for/to me) explain why I’ve called the same number (my mother’s landline) twice about 20 minutes apart from the same location from my L5, and one time I hear the dialling, and the next not.

Going by other replies, at least I know it’s not happening exclusively in Australia. It’s not a super big deal because I remember to hang on for a while to allow the person to answer. It’s just different to what I’ve been used to with every other phone I’ve owned in the past, and as I said, it’s only started happening in the last few weeks.

1 Like

VoLTE is being mandated as part of the 3G network shutdown. LTE means “4G”. So basically VoLTE means using 4G for voice calls (whereas in the recent past a phone could use 4G for data but drop down to 3G for calls, while with VoLTE the phone will just stay on 4G all the time).

For Vodafone, shutdown started mid December last year (2023).
For Telstra, the official start date for the shutdown is 30 June 2024.
For Optus, the official start date for the shutdown is September 2024.
(obviously future dates - for Telstra and Optus - are subject to change)

So depending on your carrier, you are either already using it or you probably will be within less than 1 year.

Regardless of the above dates, it has actually been possible to use VoLTE in Australia for several years. What is changing is that VoLTE is made mandatory by the shutdown of the 3G network.

So, in summary, yes, it’s here in Australia.

2 Likes

Thanks for the info @irvinewade. I’m with Optus, so looks like the last few months of the year for me.
As I said, I’ve not heard of “VoLTE” before. Thanks again for the info.

1 Like

Hey guys is there any way to get through the VOLTE issue here in Australia for Vodafone users?

My Librem 5 has been living on my headboard since late last year so I haven’t really touched it but I picked it up today to test if any updates were around to finally make the phone moderately useable but came across the VOLTE issue. It looks like some people in other threads had found some sort of workaround with support from the Purism team but I can’t figure out what a bm818-tool is and how to implement it effectively to allow the phone to make calls again.

Any advice/support?

1 Like

sudo apt install bm818-tools

That will add an icon to your main screen. Launch that application. Touch the checkbox for VoLTE.

To be on the safe side I would then reboot the phone before attempting to make a call.

3 Likes

Thanks for the suggestion but I’m getting this error and no app is showing up.

Am I doing something wrong?

1 Like

You probably need to update and upgrade your Librem 5’s various packages first:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

After that, try installing bm818-tools:

sudo apt install bm818-tools

If for whatever reason it does not work then, follow the suggested instructions:

apt --fix-broken install
2 Likes