Unknown Caller Issue - Receiving Calls From Contacts

[Kosmos5457]

Hello O2 Community,

I've been recently troubled by some issue where when I'm receiving phone calls from contacts listed in my iPhones contacts, instead of my iPhone stating their name, it says Unknown Caller. This is particularly unhelpful, especially if out in the car so using CarPlay, or even when taking a glance at my Apple Watch and seeing the same issue. 

This has only started happening since I migrated from my old iPhone XS to iPhone 14 Pro and in the past month or so is when I upgraded. At this point, as I was moving from an old 4G SIM to a new 5G SIM, I was requiring a SIM swap. 

I've not seen any other issues and have also spoken to Apple about this. I did mention that I hadn't yet followed up with network provider. 

The interesting thing is that this appears to be intermittent. It doesn't happen on every call. I don't know if it is happening in certain places but not others. I don't think I've seen the issue at home at all such as when I may be on O2 WiFi Calling for example. I may have seen it in areas I think, where I have 4G reception but again, not entirely certain of that. 

When I check phone call history on iPhone itself after an Unknown Caller issue, it displays also as Unknown Caller. This suggests to me that the issue is with something on the phone or the service.

I had wondered also if deleting or editing contact may help. It's just that it is intermittent, so now thinking it is more the service that is the issue with receiving calls, that not always the caller ID is being sent to me so I can identify who is calling me. 

I read some more last night into this issue. There have been suggestions of switching off 4G calling but I don't see option to do that. I understand o2 may have removed this option with carrier update and toggled this setting off but it does not display on my phone so I can confirm.

I spoke with o2 support yesterday and they said no issues with service for me. It wasn't looked into or investigated further. It was just said yeah all is fine. I would appreciate having someone on the end of the phone that can escalate if necessary and do some deeper checks with network. 

[Kosmos5457]

In addition, I've done some further testing at home. If on WiFi Calling, I don't seem to have the issue. If I'm on EDGE, or 3G at least, I have this issue. Not sure if or not it happens on 4G. Not been able to test that just yet. I have a feeling that it will do the same. I know it happened in an area which I think is covered with 4G coverage but I'm sure I've seen it working in areas when out and about. 

I'm hoping it is narrowed down a little to pinpointing issue as all is fine so it seems on WiFi Calling. 

[O2Ryan]

thanks for the tag ill send a private message over now.

[Kosmos5457]

Ryan has reached out but no further updates. I'll share here what I shared with Ryan regarding my findings. 

On WiFi Calling, all is fine, Caller ID is displaying on incoming calls. So far as I can see, it also works when receiving calls on 4G. 

If my signal switches to 3G, EDGE or GPRS, then Unknown Caller is displayed instead. This explains why this issue may be intermittent. 

I've done test calls from landline to mobile. My daughters phone is on Lebara, so Vodafone, while also have tested calling from a BT Landline. 

I don't know what else to add at this point. Just that it is frustrating. I remember a time some years ago where when I was in an area that preferred stronger GPRS signal rather than 3G and on an iPhone 5 or 6, with a jailbreak, you could force it to use 3G instead, despite signal being weaker. 

Thing is I'm in an area where signal really does vary between 3G and 4G and it hasn't caused me any problems before, except for this. 

Could carrier update from o2 influence settings here? Could o2 speak with Apple on this issue? Though I'd seen it is not exclusive to iPhones, and it could well be that there are similar issues on other networks. 

[Cleoriff]

Deleted.

[Kosmos5457]

Not sure what you said but just read O2 reps will no longer be on the forums for assistance. It will leave me no choice but to go right to the top. 

I'll reach out to CEO and see what comes of that. Usually someone will take notice and issue then be dealt with. 

[yas1]

Hi, 

I am having the same issues since I upgraded to I phone 14 with a new 5g sim. Think I have worked out that whenever my phone is on 3g , I get unknown caller even though the contact may be in my address book. I am not sure who's problem this is , is O2 or Apples?

Thanks

[yas1]

Hi Kosmos,

Have you managed to sort the problem and if so , how?

Thanks

[Kosmos5457]

I did share solution to this on another thread, showing what needs to be done. 

You are right in that the issue presents itself on 3G or below. So 4G and WiFi Calling was fine. 

It is certainly an O2 issue. What you need to do is call O2 and advise that they need to add what is called a CLI Presentation Facility to your bolt-ons. There is no charge for this but it is the fix. 

Hopefully you get someone who understands the issue but you can tell them the solution over the phone. State that this has been well publicised on the Community Forum. 

On another thread where I shared the solution, some representative there was querying how is it that we have a customer telling us how to fix this issue. It is something that should be picked up straight away, like acknowledged. I had high level network engineers do testing with me. I found as you did with the issue being when not on 4G. 

Customer Service I don't think really understood the issue. Also, other people with other phones, not iPhone, have had this issue as well. Don't let them fob you off with resetting network settings, SIM swap. Be insisting you know the solution. 

TLDR: Ask O2 to add CLI Presentation Facility bolt-on to your account as this will resolve issue. 

[yas1]

Many thanks Kosmos5457. I'll call them and ask them to do that. Also just seen on another forum that this issue was also solved by asking O2 to reset the account.

Thank you

[Kosmos5457]

They consider resetting an account as a last resort. I had initially asked if they could disconnect and reconnect my number, even if it were going to leave me without service for a day or two. It was only after working with network team that I discovered under my bolt-ons was this CLI Presentation Facility which was never there before. 

The bolt-on shows it was added at the time it was fixed. All other bolt-ons were there when renewing contract except for that one.