Wifi calling non-functional on new OPPO phones

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Wifi calling non-functional on new OPPO phones

Altmaster

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#306707 15-Aug-2023 14:59

I live in an area with marginal cell coverage at best, so recently I decided to buy some new phones that supported wifi calling. I (perhaps naively) assumed if the device was included on Spark's list of compatible devices and purchased in NZ (in this case, from OPPO's online store), it would work (despite the buy-the-phones-from-us CYA note all network providers seem to include).

However, despite being able to enable the features on both a Reno 8 Lite and A78 5G, neither VoLTE nor VoWIFI work on either phone.

I chucked a mate's 2degree SIM in and immediately both features work just fine, so I'm probably going to just migrate to them. My curiosity is thus: I noticed when using the 2degrees SIM that a specific option (whether to prefer mobile or wifi calling) disappeared from the settings. I don't know much about how the functionality works, but this implies to me that the network pushes some sort of configuration to the device OTA, which made me wonder: does even being able to enable the wifi calling option with my Spark SIM in at least indicate that the feature should work? Or is it just a case of the device being locked out because it's not a Spark-specific ROM?

andyb

236 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

Spark NZ

#3116256 15-Aug-2023 15:17

Have you called Spark to see if the services are both provisioned?

andyb

Altmaster

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3116259 15-Aug-2023 15:19

I honestly had no idea the services had to be specifically provisioned - if it was on the site I missed it completely. I've just read through the comments from the thread about the Pixel 5 now, so the realisation has hit me that maybe my 10 year old SIM card is part of the problem.

Edit: I see the note about provisioning on the VoLTE page - I only looked at the pages discussing VoWIFI.

ShaneKNZ

28 posts

Geek

Trusted

Spark

#3116261 15-Aug-2023 15:21

Hey Altmaster.

Both Reno8 Lite and A78 5G support VoLTE on Spark.

Reno8 Lite also supports VoWiFi - A78 does not yet - it's approx 1 month away.

The devices will need to be on the latest SW version.

In terms of the toggle showing with a 2D SIM and not with a Spark SIM - this is controlled by the device. Most modern devices do 'SIM detection' and expose toggles for services that are approved / enabled for that carrier.

As andyb pointed out - Spark may still need to provision the service on your device - but this will not impact which toggles are visible on your device. The age of your SIM doesn't matter.

Altmaster

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3116267 15-Aug-2023 15:24

ShaneKNZ:

In terms of the toggle showing with a 2D SIM and not with a Spark SIM - this is controlled by the device. Most modern devices do 'SIM detection' and expose toggles for services that are approved / enabled for that carrier.

As andyb pointed out - Spark may still need to provision the service on your device - but this will not impact which toggles are visible on your device. The age of your SIM doesn't matter.

Thanks for the clarification, it's nice to understand what's going on.

I chatted with Spark support, and was told the services wouldn't be provisioned on an old SIM and I would need a new one - ergo, head off to the Spark store. Are you saying they should be able to enable it without me changing the physical SIM?

ShaneKNZ

28 posts

Geek

Trusted

Spark

#3116283 15-Aug-2023 15:53

Yeah you definitely don't need a new physical SIM card to enable VoLTE or VoWiFi...

However, we are having some issues with issues with adding provisioning currently. I can at least check if your number is provisioned - if you can ping me a PM with your number.