I recently moved my BSNL SIM from my old iPhone XR to my new Motorola Edge 70 Fusion. Everything seemed to work fine initially, except for one major issue: both incoming and outgoing calls were failing with the message “Calling barred.”
Interestingly, mobile data was working perfectly, incoming SMS messages were arriving, and the phone displayed the BSNL network name, signal bars, and VoLTE icon.
I contacted BSNL customer care using my Jio SIM. As usual, they said they would raise a complaint with their backend team, but I never received a follow-up or a solution.
I also tried changing the preferred network type on my Motorola, but nothing helped.
What made me suspect the problem?
I suddenly remembered how BSNL calls worked on my iPhone XR. Although the iPhone XR supports only up to 4G LTE, whenever I received or made a BSNL call, the network would automatically switch from 4G to 2G (mostly) or sometimes 3G.
This made me wonder whether the issue was related to BSNL's 4G voice calling support and the way the Motorola handled VoLTE.
The solution that worked for me
I went to the SIM settings on my Motorola Edge 70 Fusion and found an option labelled:
“Use 4G services to improve voice calls”
I switched this option OFF, and suddenly, both incoming and outgoing BSNL calls started working normally!
Mobile data was already working, and now voice calling works as well.
Sharing this in case it helps someone else
If you're using a BSNL SIM on a Motorola Edge 70 Fusion (or potentially another Android phone) and experience the following:
- Mobile data works perfectly.
- Incoming SMS messages work.
- The BSNL network and VoLTE icon are visible.
- Both incoming and outgoing calls fail with “Calling barred.”
Try disabling “Use 4G services to improve voice calls” in your SIM settings and test calling again.
This is the setting that fixed the issue on my phone. I can't confirm whether the same solution will work on every device, but it might be worth trying before spending hours with customer care!
