Vodafone Wifi Calling

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#2774174 8-Sep-2021 07:54

I've just tried this again (in Wellington), and it works just fine on my 5 yr old iphone SE running iOS15 beta 8.

Put phone into flight mode, registered back to voda quickly over WIFI and away it goes. The Carrier name display Vodafone WIFI calling.

Voda isnt my mobile carrier but good on them for finally catching up.

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#2774184 8-Sep-2021 08:18

So do we know how things are handled when you have wifi calling and 1 or 2 bars of weak signal? How does it prioritize what to use? I'm in the poor voda signal at home category, want to know if it's best to leave in airplane mode to be permanently on wifi calling. Thanks.

freitasm

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#2774189 8-Sep-2021 08:20

cokemaster: If it helps you with your decision making, many of the former Geekzone IRC moderators were secret iPhone fans (Nate and Brad), including the big man himself. ;)

If by big man himself you mean me (and not @tonyhughes) then sorry, but I have never had an iPhone.

CYaBro

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#2774233 8-Sep-2021 09:13

freitasm:

cokemaster: If it helps you with your decision making, many of the former Geekzone IRC moderators were secret iPhone fans (Nate and Brad), including the big man himself. ;)

If by big man himself you mean me (and not @tonyhughes) then sorry, but I have never had an iPhone.

They never said you had an iPhone, just that you were secret fans. :)

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

KiwiSurfer

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#2774972 8-Sep-2021 21:21

PoHq:

So do we know how things are handled when you have wifi calling and 1 or 2 bars of weak signal? How does it prioritize what to use? I'm in the poor voda signal at home category, want to know if it's best to leave in airplane mode to be permanently on wifi calling. Thanks.

For what it's worth, my S21 with 2d/VF SIMs seems to prefer VoWiFi although admittedly I live in a good signal area (near Manukau City) so can't really answer your query directly.

What I found interesting through, is that I had a brief power cut for a few seconds this morning which shut down my Chrous ONT (needing me to power cycle it before it would work again) so given the lack of internet access on my WiFi (which came back OK after the power cut) my phone obviously fell back to VoLTE. Interestingly when the internet came back online and the phone switched back to WiFi for data, it didn't also switch back to VoWiFi. I toggled WiFi off and on and it was back on VoWIFi (though to be fair it may have done that on its own eventually).

I wonder if the algorithm that determines the quality of the WiFi network or the frequency it checks the availability/quality/etc of WiFi networks can be the reason why the phone decides to go back to the cellular network...

On another tangent: 2degrees SIM shows '2degrees WiFi Calling' in the network name area, whereas Vodafone only shows 'vodafone NZ'. No big deal though as there's a nice Phone/WiFi icon that shows the VoWiFi status anyway.

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#2776181 10-Sep-2021 19:03

I can confirm that Vodafone Wi-Fi calling works over a Starlink connection. I've only tested on a couple of short calls, so not sure how reliable for a long call.

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#2776215 10-Sep-2021 19:30

It’d be helpful if there were some tools that one could use to troubleshoot wifi calling.

Today had a couple of call drops and batches of dead audio. However there are times that calls can hold for 1+ hours.

On 2D, I used to get a much higher frequency of dropped calls but didn’t the issues with dead air.

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boosacnoodle

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#2776253 10-Sep-2021 21:26

I also experienced a dropped call.

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#2776274 11-Sep-2021 00:29

So there appears to be some documentation online although unsure how much is relevant... but it is very light on detail.

eg. For TP link (the brand that Voda uses for their "Super wifi" client) - https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/faq/1259/

They suggest:

Disabling the SIP ALG
Reserve the LAN IP for your device
Enabling port forwarding (which breaks if you have multiple ipsec connections or multiple Wifi calling devices)

I haven't put in the port forwarding but have always had the private MAC feature turned off. Personally I have reservations about putting port forwarding in and I also have reservations about whether turning off the SIP ALG will achieve anything.

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#2776303 11-Sep-2021 10:29

cokemaster:

So there appears to be some documentation online although unsure how much is relevant... but it is very light on detail.

eg. For TP link (the brand that Voda uses for their "Super wifi" client) - https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/faq/1259/

They suggest:

Disabling the SIP ALG
Reserve the LAN IP for your device
Enabling port forwarding (which breaks if you have multiple ipsec connections or multiple Wifi calling devices)
I haven't put in the port forwarding but have always had the private MAC feature turned off. Personally, I have reservations about putting port forwarding in and I also have reservations about whether turning off the SIP ALG will achieve anything.

I would say the only suggestion there that could do any good is disable the SIP ALG.

Reserve a LAN IP for your device is a stupid suggestion. Pretty much all current iOS and Android devices use randomised MAC addresses, and unless you go into Advanced settings you will end up with a mess of reserved IPs that are not in use because the device decided to change its MAC address.

Port forwarding is not something to do lightly.

What I have found (with another provider) is that depending on your LAN traffic you might want to activate QOS and put your phones in a higher priority than other applications or devices such as streaming boxes. Again, this means you would have to make your device's MAC address static, assign a static IP address and then activate QOS for those devices.

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#2777847 13-Sep-2021 21:49

I believe its something to do with the Deco aka Superwifi set up (mesh wifi). I've been able to hold 2 hour (work) calls on the non mesh Fritzbox wifi without any issues.

Could beamforming or Fast roaming be an issue? Double NAT?

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Morm

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#2778029 14-Sep-2021 09:13

cokemaster:

I believe its something to do with the Deco aka Superwifi set up (mesh wifi). I've been able to hold 2 hour (work) calls on the non mesh Fritzbox wifi without any issues.

Could beamforming or Fast roaming be an issue? Double NAT?

It more likely to be the device doesn't like being moved around the mesh (jumping from one node to another). If the device is in fairly equal coverage between the two mesh nodes it can be pushed to the other node for load balancing etc. Some devices can have issues with the jump and drop connection.

This can be disable for specific devices in the Deco app, so locks you to the one node instead.

Arkhitekton00

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#2779035 15-Sep-2021 21:15

Hello and apologies for interrupting this thread.

I am trying to find some reliable information (if available) on the what is required for the Wifi Calling to work.

I am aware that you need:

1. A compatible phone ( at this stage i am not worried about this as a new compatible phone can be purchased if required.)

2. (Vodafone NZ customers) a voice calling enabled plan. (This is the information I am after)

Backstory: My parents are currently on Wifi provided internet, and using the The Sure Signal service provided by Vodafone. (Which is in the process of being discontinued)

- They have no access to copper or fibre lines due to being rural

- They only have internet access through WiFi provided internet.

- There is no cellphone reception where they are.

I have just been on the phone with Vodafone technical support who stated to get a voice calling enabled plan, they would have to purchase a Vodafone Broadband internet plan. This does not sound like accurate information?

No Vodafone wired or wireless service is available for their location, Vodafone have checked their address against coverage options.

Has anyone got any reliable information on what Cellphone plan from Vodafone is "a voice calling enabled plan." This would give me a head start on what options I can propose to them.

If this post needs to be moved out of this thread, please feel free to do so.