I use an iPhone 4, and I have 3 other verified accounting's from friends about this random tone being produced, which would lead you to believe it was a cheek dial. Two were iPhone 4S's and the other was an android, an S3. Here is the information I have been able to produce using these 4 phones:
Timing is Random, sometimes 5 seconds in, sometimes 45 minutes.
3 Verizon and one ATT were the carriers, the S3 was the ATT phone.
The opposing party does not hear the tone when it occurs, and I recorded 3 instances where the tone was produced, saved it, and sent the clip of the sound to the other end on the line, and they never heard it during the call.
This problem occurs with varying frequency, apparently more for one of my friends on one of the iPhones. Sometimes it happens twice a day, or week, sometimes not for weeks.
Cell site connection is not a factor. (I think) Been to multiple states with the same result, pure randomness. The other two iPhones agree as they travel a great deal.
Calls were conducted with the phone only, a headset (iphone factory one) and loudspeaker. During 2 calls to date that I have placed the tone can be heard as an echo by the other line through my phone.
We all determined that minute counting was not the issue, as mine have occurred as early as 26 minutes into a billing cycle and as late as 519 minutes, with the spacing also irregular, sometimes they as close as 10-20 minutes, other times hundreds. (The most not fun part of trying to figure this out)
It started occurring for me 8-10 months after I got the phone. I brought it up to a friend one time during a call and I apologized for the cheek dial, and to my surprise he said: "Your hearing those too?"
At first I thought that was all I heard, but you can also hear a very faint change in the background noise that would almost sound like a silent hangup. (I heard this for the first time when My friend ran to the bathroom and there was no voice on the line. I've only been able to pick it out twice since then in about 15 months. Maybe its just an anomaly in the line? You really have to be lucky to hear it though. None of my close friends involved in this issue have ever head that yet.
I have called Verizon multiple times regarding this issue as have my two closest friends and have not heard any legitimate cause for this. They all said it was cheek dial, and when I told them it was while I was on speaker, they were lost.
I finally walked in to a Verizon store and demanded a replacement phone. My wife and I got ours at the same time, and she has never heard this yet. Much to my delight he said he has heard of this problem too many times to count. I thought the phone was the problem. They took my phone and ran a "diagnostic test" on it the same day. I got my phone back about 4 hours later as they no longer carry the iPhone 4 in stock. He told me that he had already informed the manager about it, who in turn told the regional sales guy about it.
A few weeks later I get a call from the sales guy at the store and tells me that according to Verizon (the regional guy at least), this is the phone jumping cell towers mid-call. The sales guy said he didn't buy it. He said is only has 1 tower where he lives, and it has happened to him before on several occaisions.
It sounds far-fetched, but the guy at the store seems to believe this tone is some type of call intercept tone. I don't know why someone would bother pinging your phone with a stupid beep just to let you know they are listening. But could this be true? Could they be listening to our phone calls? And if so why me and not my wife?
Resetting the Network Settings seem to temporarily fix it, but it alway comes back.
