Google Pixel 6 and 5G and Volte

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Google Pixel 6 and 5G and Volte

bazbear

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#290393 8-Nov-2021 19:42

Hi,

I have a Google Pixel 6 which i have imported from Australia via the Google Australia Store.

I am on a Skinny plan.

I was in Christchurch CBD over the weekend and 5G would just not connect. It stayed on 4G the whole time. SKinny support couldn't work it out.

Phone has the prereq bands as stated on the Spark website:

Our initial 5G deployment is 'NSA' (non-stand-alone). What this means is that a device needs to connect to 4G before it can connect to 5G. This means that at minimum, a device must support both Band 1 | LTE 2100MHz and N78 | 5G.

So i am not sure what else could be wrong.

Also, VOLTE does not work but i think that might cause Skinny has not enabled it.

Any help would be great :)

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#2809571 8-Nov-2021 19:52

I am with Spark and I have a similar/the same problem with Pixel 5a 5G.

MaxineN

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#2809574 8-Nov-2021 20:00

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=97&topicid=289813&page_no=14#2804726

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=39&topicid=280371
https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=40&topicid=289035

5G isn't going to happen any time soon, same with VoLTE. Google doesn't care about NZ and there's no configuration within the modem for our networks.

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

gzt

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#2809578 8-Nov-2021 20:11

Yep we have discussed this in the existing current Pixel 6 topic.

I think it's appropriate to raise this in the Spark forum for Spark users as the OP has done here.

Btw, Pixel 5/6 has a feature called Adaptive Network. This feature is intended to reduce power demand by activating 5G only when bandwidth is demanded. I switched this off, it made no difference for Spark NZ.

Linux

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#2809584 8-Nov-2021 20:36

You can easily test if VoLTE is enabled on your mobile number

Pop your SIM into another handset and test

sbiddle

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#2809723 9-Nov-2021 07:38

Plenty of other threads on here incl the other Pixel 6 thread at the moment which is linked above.

If you want a guarantee of working 5G, VoLTE and WiFi calling on a handset you *need* to buy it from a carrier in NZ.

For any handset purchased elsewhere or overseas the assumption now needs to be that none of these will work, and if one or more of these do work it's just a lucky bonus.

There really never has been a worse time than now to be buying handsets, because we have such limited choice here due to the size of the market, and having VoLTE support in particular has now become so critical if you rely on voice calling due to the huge number of RCG sites that are being deployed.

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#2809873 9-Nov-2021 14:05

sbiddle:

Plenty of other threads on here incl the other Pixel 6 thread at the moment which is linked above.

If you want a guarantee of working 5G, VoLTE and WiFi calling on a handset you *need* to buy it from a carrier in NZ.

For any handset purchased elsewhere or overseas the assumption now needs to be that none of these will work, and if one or more of these do work it's just a lucky bonus.

There really never has been a worse time than now to be buying handsets, because we have such limited choice here due to the size of the market, and having VoLTE support in particular has now become so critical if you rely on voice calling due to the huge number of RCG sites that are being deployed.

With the Exception of iPhones which are universally supported

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gzt

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#2810085 9-Nov-2021 20:13

In the sense that both major carriers in NZ sell iPhone at this time, yes. There were definitely iPhone shenanigans occuring in the distant past.

gzt

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#2810089 9-Nov-2021 20:29

Linux: You can easily test if VoLTE is enabled on your mobile number. Pop your SIM into another handset and test

Unless like me your other phone is an VoLTE capable Nokia 7.2 purchased from Spark and Spark have not enabled VoLTE for that device ever according to other owners I talked to 😂. I don't know any details and I'm not making any judgements about that. Presumably that's still the case @jamesrt?.

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#2810092 9-Nov-2021 20:39

gzt: Presumably that's still the case @jamesrt?.

Yes, still no VoLTE for me on Skinny on my Nokia 7.2

techwizard

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#2812661 14-Nov-2021 15:13

bazbear:

Hi,

I have a Google Pixel 6 which i have imported from Australia via the Google Australia Store.

I am on a Skinny plan.

I was in Christchurch CBD over the weekend and 5G would just not connect. It stayed on 4G the whole time. SKinny support couldn't work it out.

Phone has the prereq bands as stated on the Spark website:

Our initial 5G deployment is 'NSA' (non-stand-alone). What this means is that a device needs to connect to 4G before it can connect to 5G. This means that at minimum, a device must support both Band 1 | LTE 2100MHz and N78 | 5G.

So i am not sure what else could be wrong.

Also, VOLTE does not work but i think that might cause Skinny has not enabled it.

Any help would be great :)

Thought you would have more luck with an Australian model as most NZ sold devices are the same as Australias. Try Vodafone, you might have some luck with them.

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ztytian

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#2831838 14-Dec-2021 08:19

techwizard:
bazbear:

Hi,

I have a Google Pixel 6 which i have imported from Australia via the Google Australia Store.

I am on a Skinny plan.

I was in Christchurch CBD over the weekend and 5G would just not connect. It stayed on 4G the whole time. SKinny support couldn't work it out.

Phone has the prereq bands as stated on the Spark website:

Our initial 5G deployment is 'NSA' (non-stand-alone). What this means is that a device needs to connect to 4G before it can connect to 5G. This means that at minimum, a device must support both Band 1 | LTE 2100MHz and N78 | 5G.

So i am not sure what else could be wrong.

Also, VOLTE does not work but i think that might cause Skinny has not enabled it.

Any help would be great :)

Thought you would have more luck with an Australian model as most NZ sold devices are the same as Australias. Try Vodafone, you might have some luck with them.

It’s not what you phone or what region you buy your phone from, but rather IF the manufacturer included the relevant configurations specific to each network. In googles case they refuse to include any carrier config for regions they don’t officially sell phones in, and that includes NZ.

The Pixel 6 uses a Samsung modem if memory serves. You can get VoLTE and WiFi working on a qualcomm Pixel device by manually injecting the appropriate configurations, but that’s not the case with the Pixel 6.

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droidxt

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#2871959 21-Feb-2022 12:50

It's absolute BS. My $500 Poco F3 I got from Aliexpress ran 5G and VoLTE perfectly on the stock and custom firmwares. My new Pixel 6 from Bestbuy (GA02900-US) which is double the price doesn't work on 5G and no VoLTE.

Gonna have to probably root it to get it to work but then gotta deal with the BS with hiding root from google pay etc.

bazbear

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#2871975 21-Feb-2022 12:56

yup, after having a Nexus 4, Nexus 5x and Pixel 4, this will be my last Google phone. Will go to Samsung next.

nztim

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#2871976 21-Feb-2022 12:58

I keep repeating myself in these threads if you want 5G/VoWiFi/VoLTE to just work stick with Apple

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

droidxt

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#2871981 21-Feb-2022 13:03

I've used the iphone as a work phone and still can't stand iOS. Too many limitations and super boring layout, let alone the price.

The fact that my cheap Xiaomi phone worked with 5G out of the box yet the expensive Pixel doesn't is a little ridiculous.

Not a huge deal for me as 4g is fast enough, just disappointing.

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