No "Wi-Fi Calling" option on Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

[olaflauder]

[Ooops, thought I'd posted this earlier, but seems I didn't, so here goes again!]

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, with fully up-to-date Samsung software. I'd read on the Vodafone web-site that Wi-Fi Calling was supported on this model on my contract. But I couldn't see the Wi-Fi Calling option within the Phone Setting menus in order to turn on the option on the phone.

So I embarked on a series of calls to Vodafone 191/Chat, none of which have resolved the problem of the missing Wi-Fi Calling option.

Then Vodafone suggested I take the phone down to my local Vodafone store, which I did, and I was told that as the phone was not supplied by Vodafone, then Wi-Fi Calling wasn't supported.

I posted a grumble on this forum saying what I'd just been told by Vodafone, and was informed by @BandofBrothers that "It's no longer required to have had purchased the phone directly from Vodafone.  These links may help.  vodafone-wi-fi-calling T&C.

Android/Wi-fi-enabling-on-Samsung-S7-phone.

Android/Galaxy-S7-WiFi-calling-Android-7-Nougat.  "

So I embarked on another round of cancelling Wi-Fi calling on the Vodafone web-site, waiting for confirmation that it was cancelled, sending the CALLING message to 97888, waiting for it to be confirmed, asking Vodafone 191 to send an Over-The-Air (OTA) update, taking the SIM out and restarting the phone a few times. Then being told by the Vodafone 191 agent that Wi-Fi Calling may not be supported on my phone as it was not purchased from Vodafone.

So,  I need a definitive and official response from Vodafone as to whether Wi-Fi Calling will or will not work on my phone. Is this forum the best route for getting such a response from Vodafone? The answer will determine whether I stay with Vodafone or not.

Over to Vodafone for that response ......

[John]

@olaflauder Wi-Fi calling is available on the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge - you can check out our full list of eligible phones here.

The following plans are compatible with Wi-Fi Calling:

• Pay monthly Red Extra
• Red Entertainment
• Red or Red Value
• Red+
• Business Value
• Business Extra
• Business Premier
• Business Black
  
  

  Business customers need to have bought their plan and phone directly from us to use this service.

  Red Sharer, One Net Business, One Net Enterprise and One Net Express plans aren’t able to use Wi-Fi Calling.
  
  Please follow these steps to set up Wi-Fi calling on your phone:
  1. Connect to Wi-Fi (Go to Settings and choose the Wi-Fi icon to connect to an available Wi-Fi network, such as your home Wi-Fi or a public hotspot).
  2. Make sure you have the latest software on your phone. To update your software, go to Settings > About device > Software update > Update now
  3. Switch on Wi-Fi Calling:
  Samsung: Go to Phone > Three vertical dots (top right hand corner) > Settings > Wi-Fi Calling > set it to On
  
  Please note, Wi-Fi Calling takes effect only when the mobile signal in your area is poor or non-existent, and you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.
  
  You can view this information here.

[TrickyD2]

Having bought a SIM free Samsung A3 (2017) from Argos to take advantage of Vodafone’s Wi-Fi calling on my existing account, you can imagine my disappointment when it didn’t work.  Yes, I tried Vodafone’s on-line chat and went to the local Vodafone shop.  To cut a long story short, they tried hard but, frankly, had no clue what was wrong.  I have also tried setting APN’s as suggested in various forum threads.

Trawling the Internet, it became obvious that the issue was with Android 7, Samsung and Vodafone.

My thanks to @prozac1976 on another thread because he gave me the bit of the jigsaw puzzle that made Wi-Fi calling work for me (and I hope you).  The issue is with Samsung’s home screen software Touchwiz preventing phone setting updates from Vodafone.  If, like me, after putting in the SIM you had a text from Vodafone saying “… your device doesn’t support automatic settings updates … “ then, the solution below cured that as well.

Assuming you have a Wi-Fi calling compatible Samsung phone (see Vodafone’s list) with Android 7 and a compatible calling plan then the steps needed are:

1. Log in to your My Vodafone account on the internet (I used my PC for this) and DISABLE the Wi-fi calling service if it is already enabled (this is so that later we can get Vodafone to update the phone settings);
2. Log out of My Vodafone;
3. Download and install Google’s, Google Now Launcher and install it to replace the Samsung Touchwiz home screen (Don’t worry this is only temporary, you may even prefer the Google offering);
4. Go to Settings->Connections->Mobile networks->Access Point Names   (Settings can be found by dragging the top of the screen down and tapping the gear symbol at the top right);
5. In the Access Points Names page, tap the three vertical dots (top right) and tap Reset to default. In the pop-up titled Reset APN settings? Tap RESET.  On the next pop-up SIM service tap Cancel.  No APNS are selected but don’t panic.
6. Now use Vodafone’s CP Message to update your phone settings by texting WEB to 40127;
7. You will receive a text from Vodafone saying “It looks like you’ve swapped your SIM or updated ……… by text shortly”
8. The text will be followed by a Configuration Message from Vodafone. Tap through to Install the configuration (tapping Install, Next, Install, Ok).
9. Now log back on to your My Vodafone account periodically until the Wi-Fi calling Service is NOT enabled. You need to wait until you are NOT set up for Wi-Fi calling, otherwise Vodafone doesn’t seem to send the set up to the phone.
10. Once you don’t have Wi-Fi calling on your account, you can then add it to your account and sometime later you will receive a text from Vodafone saying “Wi-Fi Calling is now activated ………”
11. Got to Phone->Settings (vertical dots top right) and scroll down and if like me you are lucky, you will have Wi-Fi Calling.

As @prozac1976 said on his post, you can now go back to Touchwiz as your home screen (by uninstalling Google Now Launcher) and still have Wi-Fi calling.

Good luck