I have a strange issue which I'm hoping just requires a flick of a switch at the Spark end.

I'm new to Spark (as of this weekend just past), using an iPhone 12 mini which I purchased direct from Apple. I was previously with Spark for about a month too, at which time I was using an iPhone 11 Pro, but I moved to Vodafone very briefly a few weeks ago and found their signals very lacking in the areas in which I live and work, so that was a no-go.

Now that I'm back on Spark, with a new SIM card picked up from a Spark store where they did the provisioning on Saturday, the first issue is that I can't seem to get a 5G signal, even in an area showing as 5G enabled on Spark's coverage map (in Ponsonby, Auckland). I do have the 5G options showing on my iPhone settings, and 5G was working fine on Vodafone with this exact device.

The second issue is that I no longer have a VoLTE setting in the same area where it was sitting prior to moving to Spark – on my iPhone 11 Pro I had VoLTE working on Spark in the exact same geographical areas (home & office) so I think I can rule out the signal being the problem.

I tried getting help via Spark's online chat but to be honest I'm not sure the customer service agent understood the issue, as they kept copying & pasting things such as "Check with your carrier that VoLTE is enabled" – I let them know politely that they (Spark) are my carrier and that's what I was enquiring about etc.

So long story short, is there something I'm missing – do I need to phone Spark and get someone to enable 5G & VoLTE for my SIM or my (pay monthly, endless data) account?

Apologies if this is all confusing, I've been moving to & fro providers recently trying to find the right balance of plan/data/signal.

Oh and one last thing – I haven't yet tried the "Reset Network Settings" kill-all feature on iOS as I'm very hesitant to delete the passwords of every WiFi network I use. If that is the last resort then so be it, but hopefully there's something that I can try before going nuclear.