During a call, the voice breaks up.
The other person sounds quiet. Muffled.
“Is the line bad?” You’d think so. I would.
But the cause isn’t always the line. Often it’s your device or equipment you’ve connected. Let’s isolate it in order.
Bottom line: suspect in the order “place, device, connected equipment, app”
- Place: are you somewhere with a weak signal?
- Device: is there a problem with the microphone, speaker or settings?
- Connected equipment: Bluetooth earphones, a car speaker, and so on
- App: the calling app’s conditions, or a use that isn’t guaranteed to work
① Place: weak or changeable signal
- Deep inside a building, underground, in elevators, and on moving trains or cars, the signal switches easily
- At the edge of coverage, calls may cut out or temporarily become unusable
Change location and see whether the same symptom appears. The steps for a bad signal are in this article on weak signal troubleshooting.
② Device: microphone and speaker
- Are the microphone and speaker holes clogged with dust or dirt?
- Is the phone case or screen protector blocking the holes?
- Call volume and noise settings (depending on the model)
- Restart, and OS updates
Clean the holes gently, with something like a soft dry brush. Don’t use strong force or liquids.
③ Connected equipment: Bluetooth and others
- Are Bluetooth earphones or in-car equipment still connected?
- Is it connected to another device, so the voice is coming out somewhere else?
- Try temporarily disconnecting the pairing with other devices
You think “I can’t hear the other person,” and it turns out the voice was coming out of another device. This happens often.
④ App: the case of Rakuten Link
The Rakuten Mobile official page (Rakuten Link) says the following.
Cases where operation is not guaranteed
- When you are using a VPN
- When you operate it while not connected to the Rakuten Mobile network
- When you use Bluetooth integration
- With dual SIM, when another carrier’s SIM is set as the voice line
It also says that long continuous calls may be disconnected. It does not say after how many minutes calls get cut off.
When you are using it in the ways above, even if a problem occurs, it is officially outside the operation guarantee. Stop using it that way for now and try again.
Cases where calls are not free, and notes on incoming calls and SMS on iPhone, are covered in this article on Rakuten Link free call exclusions.
When calls over Wi-Fi cut out
Depending on the calling app, calls may go over Wi-Fi while you’re connected to Wi-Fi. If the Wi-Fi is unstable, the call will cut out too.
Turn Wi-Fi off once and try on the mobile connection, and you’ll find the cause. The way of isolating the problem is the same as in the article on when Wi-Fi is slow.
The order to try things in
- Change location and check whether the same symptom appears
- Disconnect connected devices such as Bluetooth
- Check the microphone and speaker holes and the case
- Restart
- Turn off Wi-Fi and try on the mobile connection
- Stop uses that aren’t guaranteed to work, such as VPN or Bluetooth integration, and try again
- If it still isn’t fixed, contact support, telling them the symptoms and what you’ve tried (the channels are covered in this article on the Rakuten Mobile support contact guide)
Summary
- Suspect the cause of cutting calls in this order: place, device, connected equipment, app
- Dirt in the microphone and speaker holes, or the case, can be the cause
- If the Bluetooth connection has switched to another device, it can seem like you can’t hear anything
- For Rakuten Link, VPN, Bluetooth integration, and dual SIM with another carrier’s SIM as the voice line are listed as not guaranteed to work
With call problems, there’s a lot you can do at hand before you suspect the line.
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This article contains machine translation. For official terms, please refer to the multilingual pages on the official Rakuten Mobile website.
If you have concerns about Rakuten Mobile's coverage area or signal conditions, you can inquire through the official signal improvement survey request form .
