2degrees thinks my phone doesn't support VoLTE. Are they right?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › 2degrees thinks my phone doesn't support VoLTE. Are they right?

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Ultimate Geek

#3380835 5-Jun-2025 18:30

SaltyNZ has kindly confirmed that VoLTE is indeed working on my phone on the 2degrees network. Thanks! And thanks others for the other suggestions.

However, I tested 5G while I was in the city today (Wellington), and that does not work at all :( It was only connected at "4G+" at best, and when I set it to NR-only mode, it couldn't connect to the network at all. @MaxineN

It supports the right band - N78. Looking online, some people are suggesting switching off DSDS (it's a dual-SIM phone, though I only have one SIM). I'll try that tomorrow. I'll also try my SIM in another phone which does connect to 5G. Would be nice to have, though not exactly the end of the world, given I've survived this long without it, and I'm not a heavy user anyway.

@nztim

Not sure what this has to do with me. I never suggested that I think it should be "guaranteed to work". I'm simply trying to see if it will (and it does, for VoLTE). For the record, I bought this phone because my previous phone - which I bought directly from 2degrees - which was also a Sony Xperia, started to die from battery expansion. I'm a fan of Xperia phones, so I opted to buy a new one the only way I could at the time. And given that as you say, phones aren't even guaranteed to work across telcos, then you might as well "bang on" about it to everyone who wants to move between telcos and simply asks if their phone will still work.

mudguard

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#3380963 6-Jun-2025 07:45

nztim:

Not sure how many times this is being banged on these forums about parallel imported Android Phones.......

Unless it's purchased from the carrier that you are intending to use then there is NO guarantee that it will work

Even if you by a phone from One NZ and try to use on Spark or 2degrees you could run into issues

Yeah almost feels like we need a sticky thread for Android now.

Something in bold like Do Not Buy a Parallel Imported Phone after this date.

Seems like every week a thread pops up. Yes it sucks for the OP and for Android fans. Been through this in the last two years with mine and my partner's phones. Just vanilla Samsungs from Vodafone/One.

Behodar

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#3381013 6-Jun-2025 07:50

mudguard:

Yes it sucks for the OP

Why? VoLTE is working.

openmedia

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#3381016 6-Jun-2025 08:03

nztim:

Not sure how many times this is being banged on these forums about parallel imported Android Phones.......

Unless it's purchased from the carrier that you are intending to use then there is NO guarantee that it will work

Even if you by a phone from One NZ and try to use on Spark or 2degrees you could run into issues

Your last statement brings me the most concern. Kind breaks the concept of being easily able to move between carriers. Also what about international roaming, both into NZ and for our own international travel. The whole VoLTE mess need to be a wake up calls to both carriers and phone manufactures.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

freitasm

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#3381033 6-Jun-2025 08:18

openmedia:

nztim:

Not sure how many times this is being banged on these forums about parallel imported Android Phones.......

Unless it's purchased from the carrier that you are intending to use then there is NO guarantee that it will work

Even if you by a phone from One NZ and try to use on Spark or 2degrees you could run into issues

Your last statement brings me the most concern. Kind breaks the concept of being easily able to move between carriers. Also what about international roaming, both into NZ and for our own international travel. The whole VoLTE mess need to be a wake up calls to both carriers and phone manufactures.

It was a dream.

It was easy in the days of 3G (it wasn't on 2G because one operator used GSM the other CDMA).

But there isn't really any assurances that moving operators with your choice of phone is guaranteed.

mudguard

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#3381037 6-Jun-2025 08:45

Behodar:

mudguard:

Yes it sucks for the OP

Why? VoLTE is working.

It was more a general rant 😂

nztim

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#3381038 6-Jun-2025 08:45

openmedia:

Your last statement brings me the most concern. Kind breaks the concept of being easily able to move between carriers. Also what about international roaming, both into NZ and for our own international travel. The whole VoLTE mess need to be a wake up calls to both carriers and phone manufactures.

Apple let you freely move between carriers, you can even Have a parallel imported Apple phone (I have one) and be fine, this is because they put every frequency and VoLTE profile from around the world into their phone.

It is also why the IOS is well over 10GB with all those carriers' profiles in their software

Each phones Make, Model, and Sub Model choose what carrier profiles they choose to load into their software and it's a tradeoff between software image size vs compatibility

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

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nztim

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#3381039 6-Jun-2025 08:46

freitasm:

But there isn't really any assurances that moving operators with your choice of phone is guaranteed.

The days of popping a sim into a phone and expecting it to work, are long long gone

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

SaltyNZ

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#3381040 6-Jun-2025 08:50

The great thing about SIP is that there are about a thousand ways to do the same thing.

The terrible thing about SIP is that there are about a thousand ways to do the same thing.

The circuit-switched standards were prescriptive enough that handset manufacturers could largely guarantee that if their device worked on one RAN & Core, it would work on all of them. SIP + RTP are a sort of bare minimum to get the job of connecting two end points done. There are whole bunch of critical questions they don't attempt to answer - your end device has to register in ... something ... but we won't tell you what the something is or how your end device should know about it. You should probably connect your ... something ... to something else so you can talk to other people on those somethings too, but we won't specify how you should do it or how you will know whether the person you want to call is on that something or something else entirely.

IMS tries to answer those questions, but there is still an ocean of wiggle room simply because that's how SIP works, and the block diagram of all the nodes 3GPP had to invent to try to do it is incredibly complicated. Like, in 2G/3G you have the HLR and the MSC, and that's essentially it. You can connect your MSC to the PSTN or to another mobile network's MSC. There are a small number of procedures the UE can use to setup a call. You can connect your SMSC to the MSC and HLR and then you get text messages.

IMS has about a dozen different boxes ... it's crazy.

Anyway, that's my rant for this morning. It's not going to get better for years if ever but at least the good news is that IMS stays even in the 5G SA world and beyond.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

nztim

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#3381043 6-Jun-2025 08:59

@SaltyNZ has explained it perfectly

The SIP server is different for every Carrier

The IPSEC server (for VoWifi) is different for every carrier

The Codecs used for the RTP sessions are largely the same but may vary slightly from carrier to carrier

All this information is stored in the VoLTE profile on the handset

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

Asteros

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#3381050 6-Jun-2025 09:12

At a guess this situation will probably improve once 3G is finally turned off. There will be outcry once people with parallel handsets can't make calls and manufacturers will have to include VoLTE profiles on phones sold here from that point on.

nztim

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#3381058 6-Jun-2025 09:41

Asteros:

At a guess this situation will probably improve once 3G is finally turned off. There will be outcry once people with parallel handsets can't make calls and manufacturers will have to include VoLTE profiles on phones sold here from that point on.

I hope NZ has learnt from Australia and won't block every phone that can't make VoLTE calls

There are lots of people who are happy using an old phone as a data device to use Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, a personal hotspot who don't NEED to make a voice call and may have another phone to do that.

Australia was a shambles and created a massive amount of e-waste, that said, let's get the popcorn ready for December 2025

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SaltyNZ

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2degrees

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#3381060 6-Jun-2025 09:46

nztim:

I hope NZ has learnt from Australia and won't block every phone that can't make VoLTE calls

All three of us are working very hard to avoid the Australian s***show. There will for sure be some that we can't deal with, but I do not believe there is any intention to block them altogether (well, I don't speak for One or Spark but I'd be surprised if that was their plan any more than it is ours). They just won't be able to make VoLTE calls.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

richms

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#3381068 6-Jun-2025 10:21

Even better, they wont be able to receive calls which is something that the Telco's all make it very hard to get turned off when selling data connections.

Richard rich.ms

Screeb

698 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3381396 6-Jun-2025 18:08

Aaaanyway, I disabled DSDS in the Field Test Mode menu, and 5G now works! (@MaxineN) Woo! Best part is that enabling DSDS again doesn't change that - 5G still works. So if I ever want to do the dual-SIM thing, I guess I can, without affecting 5G.

So the only thing that doesn't work still is WiFi calling - doesn't really bother me though, I never planned to use it.

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