WiFI Calling - the challenge of non-2D supplied phones

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, 2talk and Vocus) › WiFI Calling - the challenge of non-2D supplied phones

mclarenaml

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#293287 11-Jan-2022 18:02

Hi all,

We live rurally (just out of Warkworth), and both broadband and cell connections are pretty borderline. We currently have Spark ADSL, but pretty much at the distance limits for that.

We are just in the process of migrating to Starlink, and the plan is to figuratively cut the copper landline and ADSL, and migrate to Wi-Fi Calling for voice. My wife already had a (non-2D supplied) Samsung A51 running via 2Degrees, and this switched to their VoWiFi without a blip (you've have to ask why I had taken so long to do this...). My phone is a OnePlus 6 running via Spark. I spoke to Spark, and no commitments there as to when VoWiFi was likely to become available, so made the call to migrate to 2Degrees, which I have now done.

While the OnePlus is not officially supported by 2Degrees VoWiFi, I thought it would be a relatively trivial job to get it all working. Its been anything but! After some fiddling, I've managed to get the WiFi Calling enabled on the phone, but all indications are that 2Degrees is refusing to provision this (I had a play with the phone connected to Android Studio, and watched the logs being generated as SIM's were inserted, and calls initiated. It appears this is disabled somewhere down in the IMS stack when the SIM is being initialised, but couldn't decode any more detail). I've had a talk to 2D support, and they assured me that they didn't actively stop non-supported phones connecting, just that they didn't provide any support. However, from some of the earlier notes in here, and also as deep as I have been able to get, I'm guessing my phone is either failing some authentication with 2Degrees, or is being actively rejected. I think I'm out of my depth trying to chase this further.

Its not a new phone, so being forced to upgrade is not a major issue. I do like the OnePlus, so if anyone has any ideas on getting this to play with 2Degrees VoWiFi, that would be welcome!

However, I'm assuming it will be a new phone. I've never been bound to the service provider for my phones, and typically just picked up whatever model I was after from a third party. However, I'm a bit cautious doing this, as WiFi Calling is the primary driver, so I want to be sure this is going to work.

Does anyone have any insights as to determining what phones will/will not work. I'm guessing that at a minimum I should restrict my search to the models in 2Degrees currently supported list, but should I also be restricting this to only phones supplied by 2Degrees? My wife's A51 worked without a glitch even though it was a 3rd party phone - was this pure luck, or would this be expected with any of the supported models? Any other tips or suggestions to keep me sane!

Andrew

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#2846836 11-Jan-2022 18:10

https://www.2degrees.nz/help/mobile-help/calling-features/phones-compatible-with-volte-and-wifi-calling

Have you had a look here? This lists all the handsets that support it.

Having said that mine is a non-Vodafone supplied handset that Wifi calling seems to work on fine.

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DjShadow

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#2846837 11-Jan-2022 18:12

In terms of Starlink, there appears to be a local WISP in your area that could be cheaper to use: https://www.rodneybroadband.co.nz/

MrGadget

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2degrees

#2846856 11-Jan-2022 19:20

For what it’s worth I buy by iPhones directly from Apple, not 2degrees and wifi calling works without issue.

I believe the key is to avoid parallel imported devices.

nztim

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TEAMnetwork

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#2846874 11-Jan-2022 20:36

MrGadget: For what it’s worth I buy by iPhones directly from Apple, not 2degrees and wifi calling works without issue.

I believe the key is to avoid parallel imported devices.

VoWiFi and VoLTE “Just Work” on iPhones no matter where you buy them from

Android is just so hit and miss and finally I would support a local WISP over Starlink

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

hio77

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#2846878 11-Jan-2022 20:58

The thing about VoWiFi and VoLTE is (Or carrier aggeration), they need to have the profile added to the carrier bundle.

Within NZ, that really means iPhone or Samsung. the rest is all hit and miss.

Some providers are a little looser with allowing/supporting other brands while others require a significant amount of testing before they will sign off on each device model.

Apple tends to manage carrier bundles a lot better than Andriod, which allows in general for a far more reliable support assumption.

There are a few entities out there that are trying to make it easier for Vendors and Networks to share required settings, but it's very much an opt in sort of thing - as far as I have seen no nz provider has joined any of those platforms sadly.

the one that gets my gripe is providers who don't back the devices they sell as from the network devices.

That tends to result in things like, slow 4G/5G performance. but it passes enough to tick the box.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

MaxineN

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#2846882 11-Jan-2022 21:23

hio77:

the one that gets my gripe is providers who don't back the devices they sell as from the network devices.

That tends to result in things like, slow 4G/5G performance. but it passes enough to tick the box.

This is the answer and to add even further insult to injury. I hate when retailers advertise features that do not work outright and has been proven by many people(pixel 6 series was not a fun thread to spectate), makes me so frustrated.

I suppose I should consider myself lucky that my Xiaomi Poco F3 does VoLTE and 5G(no VoWiFi yet but 1 user here has it working on a Redmi device so maybe it's a matter of time!) and this thing absolutely trumps and is up there with raw throughput when you compare it to a iPhone 12 or a S20(snapdragon, exynos variants need not apply ;).

The thing I've learned that buying a phone in New Zealand sucks 100% and you are really forced to a few choices for all the dumb reasons and we have a crappy market share to boot.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

Opinions are my own. They don't represent my employer.

hio77

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#2846913 11-Jan-2022 23:04

MaxineN:
The thing I've learned that buying a phone in New Zealand sucks 100% and you are really forced to a few choices for all the dumb reasons and we have a crappy market share to boot.

Fairly certain the device folk that I used to work with don't miss me moaning about it weekly 🤣

Still waiting for my more than 2CA on the mate 20 pro... Which was launched as a flagship dual sim phone like it was a new feature...

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

mclarenaml

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2848201 12-Jan-2022 14:01

Thanks for that. 2Degrees only officially support Huawei, Samsung and Oppo (quite ironic as understand Oppo and 1+ share a lot of their codebase now!). I'm probably heading for a Samsung for the first time.

Could you elaborate a bit more on potential issues with parallel imports. My wife's A51 I'm guessing is an import, and that works fine. I can understand the issues with carrier bundles tied to the service supplier, but why should an import behave differently to an official import not from the service supplier?

I am aware of Rodney broadband, and they definitely have a good reputation around here for support. Going to try starlink though - every report I've had locally has been great, and no real issues. The ground station is just over the hill at The Hana. Support is a bit distant if there are issues though...

Andrew

mclarenaml

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2848204 12-Jan-2022 14:06

Also had a response from a query to OnePlus trying to find if there was any way way to figure out exactly where the VoWiFi problem was arising. Surprised to get a decent reply overnight, but no real new information than what I had already. He did confirm that they are using a totally standard VoWiFi implementation, but did allude to the same issues 2Degrees mentioned regarding room for interpretation leading to minor inconsistencies.
I'm pretty certain 2Degrees are actively rejecting service requests from phones they haven't officially supported...

Karlosnz

104 posts

Master Geek

#2849375 12-Jan-2022 16:10

Just a FYI if you need a new phone, I have a Motorola Edge 20 Pro and use 2D, no issues with VoWIFI or VoLTE

Both just worked out of the box, I think there was a toggle to turn them on when I started the phone for the first time.

mclarenaml

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#2849390 12-Jan-2022 16:44

And that's one that isn't on the list!

MaxineN

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#2849392 12-Jan-2022 16:47

mclarenaml: Thanks for that. 2Degrees only officially support Huawei, Samsung and Oppo (quite ironic as understand Oppo and 1+ share a lot of their codebase now!). I'm probably heading for a Samsung for the first time.

Could you elaborate a bit more on potential issues with parallel imports. My wife's A51 I'm guessing is an import, and that works fine. I can understand the issues with carrier bundles tied to the service supplier, but why should an import behave differently to an official import not from the service supplier?

Imports are usually never supported(as normally they are setup for those countries) and imports may or may not get carrier bundles. Most Samsungs and Apple iPhones are agnostic(which is why your wife's A51 works!). Other vendors? Ha that's a literal lottery sometimes.

mclarenaml: Also had a response from a query to OnePlus trying to find if there was any way way to figure out exactly where the VoWiFi problem was arising. Surprised to get a decent reply overnight, but no real new information than what I had already. He did confirm that they are using a totally standard VoWiFi implementation, but did allude to the same issues 2Degrees mentioned regarding room for interpretation leading to minor inconsistencies.
I'm pretty certain 2Degrees are actively rejecting service requests from phones they haven't officially supported...

2degrees aren't. Oneplus 6 just isn't setup for it and is missing configuration files from 2d. I had this exact same response when I asked why my Oneplus 8 wasn't picking up 5G at all let alone VoLTE and VoWiFi. It's a lot more complicated with that and as much as they can say that they use a standard implementation, if the configuration files aren't there it's likely not going to work.

The option is to get a new phone.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

Opinions are my own. They don't represent my employer.

Darkstorm0x53

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2849703 13-Jan-2022 10:21

Just as a curiosity
is VoWifi just "Wifi Calling"?
and if so how does one test it?

Curious because I also have a OnePlus, 7t pro (codename hotdog).
But as far as i can tell Wifi calling just works, I am running custom firmware however.

MaxineN

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#2849729 13-Jan-2022 11:00

Darkstorm0x53:
Just as a curiosity
is VoWifi just "Wifi Calling"?
and if so how does one test it?

Curious because I also have a OnePlus, 7t pro (codename hotdog).
But as far as i can tell Wifi calling just works, I am running custom firmware however.

Throw your phone into airplane mode and only enable WiFi. If you can make a call to let's say a random 0800 number. It's working.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

Opinions are my own. They don't represent my employer.

Darkstorm0x53

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2849740 13-Jan-2022 11:22

MaxineN:
Darkstorm0x53:

Just as a curiosity
is VoWifi just "Wifi Calling"?
and if so how does one test it?

Curious because I also have a OnePlus, 7t pro (codename hotdog).
But as far as i can tell Wifi calling just works, I am running custom firmware however.

Throw your phone into airplane mode and only enable WiFi. If you can make a call to let's say a random 0800 number. It's working.

Hmm it indeed failed to call over WIFI, good to know i guess.
I'd have to check the logs on my router to make sure nothing is being blocked, but a strange limitation nonetheless.

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