Wifi Calling on Samsung S7

[Zammo76]

Hi 

I bought a Samung S7 on Vodafone through Carphone Warehouse about 5 months ago and recently tried enable Wifi Calling. After much messing about and callling and chatting to customer services it turns out that I can't have this feature as I ddin't buy my phone directly from Vodafone. In fact the option to turn on Wifi Calling doesn't even show up on my phone, presumably because it hasn't been flashed with the correct firmware.

Has anyone else bought their phone from Carphonewarehouse and has the same problem? Or do they have the option available?

I was thinking of maybe paying to get the phone unlocked and then updating it to see if it pulls through the correct firmware update to enable wifi calling, but i'm not sure if this is even possible?

[jeffkinn]

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@Zammo76 wrote:
Well lets just agree to disagree.

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How can you disagree with a cast iron fact? There is no room for interpretation here I'm afraid.

[Zammo76]

So what your saying is that Vodafone has the right to remove any feature that the phone is capable of doing!

For instance Carphone Warehouse is advertising the phone as having bluetooth but if we're going by your logic Vodafone could put somewhere on their website that its not avaialble unless the phone is bought direct from them. Hell you could take any feature from the phone: the camera, wifi, waterproof capabilities, micro sd slot, 4GB RAM, NFC chip etc.

But of course the fault would lie with the customer if he didn't get any of these features because they shouldn't have believed carphone warehouse's advert and should have double checked every feature they claim is on the phone by also checking Vodafones website. Stupid customer!

[BandOfBrothers]

As a Vodafone Payg Customer I abide by its T&C's 

For example. 

I use an iPhone 6 Plus which is fully capable of utilising a Hotspot to allow Tethering in its features. 

Vodafone however suppress this feature of my iPhone as this is open to Pay Monthly Customers Only.

This I accept in order to become a customer and use Vodafones Payg Network. 

As I understand this the phone supplied to you by CPW has a Vanilla version of Android Marshmallow. 

Vodafone supplied phones have a version of Android they have fully tested, approved and released to their Branded Handsets. So they are confident Calling Over Wifi works on their Network with this particular branded firmware. 

[jeffkinn]

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@Zammo76 wrote:

So what your saying is that Vodafone has the right to remove any feature that the phone is capable of doing!

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Your analogy is flawed. Bluetooth does not use the mobile network to be effective. Nor does GPS or any of the other features you've mentioned.. Thus Vodafone cannot affect their use.

Wi Fi calling does use their network and thus they control it and restrict it.

Did CPW advertise the phone as being Wi Fi enabled on Vodafone? I;d be amazed if they did.

[drey_p]

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@Zammo76 wrote:

So what your saying is that Vodafone has the right to remove any feature that the phone is capable of doing! 

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Vodafone haven't removed any feature of the handset.  In fact, Vodafone haven't even supplied your handset, so how could they have removed any feature?  Also, what you are referring to is a network feature - which is always dependant on handset and also how the feature is implemented.

What Vodafone have done is implement WiFi calling in such a way that it only works with handsets with a Vodafone ROM installed. 

So, whilst your phone is capable of WiFi calling, it isn't compatible with Vodafone's version of it.  So, if CarphoneWarehouse did advertise the phone as having WiFi calling, they are technically correct.. .it does.  If they didn't mention it wouldn't work on the Vodafone network, this is something that you need to take up with them.  The phone was supplied by them, from their stock, and hasn't got anything really to do with Vodafone other than the fact that it is used on the Vodafone network.

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@Zammo76 wrote:

But of course the fault would lie with the customer if he didn't get any of these features because they ..... should have double checked every feature they claim is on the phone by also checking Vodafones website. 

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Did you ask CPW if the WiFi calling would work on Vodafone's network?  When I bought my S7 SIM Free, I checked which features would or wouldn't work and I weighed up whether or not it was a deal breaker for me to have that feature or not.   So yes, the onus is also on the customer to check things out for themselves and do the necessary research before committing to a contract.

[Zammo76]

But my phone isn't sim free it is locked to Vodafone's network. Also Vodafone have actually enabled WiFi calling on my tariff but because my phone is lacking Vodafone's firmware that enables the ability to turn on the feature i cant activate it. So all Vodafone have to do is flash the phone with this firmware. And as im a customer paying them £36 a month they should really endeavour to do this.

On your Sim Free S7 under settings/ applications/ phone do you see the option to switch on WiFi calling?

[BandOfBrothers]

The phones supplied by CPW are unlocked handsets which accept all network SIM cards. All they do is marry up the particular chosen networks SIM card. 

The iPhone is the exception from CPW as that locks to the first SIM card inserted. 

Vodafone would not flash your phone with their firmware as its not a phone supplied by them. 

[drey_p]

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@Zammo76 wrote:
Also Vodafone have actually enabled WiFi calling on my tariff but because my phone is lacking Vodafone's firmware that enables the ability to turn on the feature i cant activate it. So all Vodafone have to do is flash the phone with this firmware.

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Vodafone will only flash their firmware onto a phone that already has their firmware.  They won't do it on a non Vodafone handset.  There were some posts from people who did try to flash the Vodafone firmware, but it did not allow them to use WiFi calling.

The phone wasn't supplied by Vodafone, it came from CPW stock.  A third party supplies their own handsets and not those from the network.

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@Zammo76 wrote:
On your Sim Free S7 under settings/ applications/ phone do you see the option to switch on WiFi calling?

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Nope, I have no option for WiFi calling at all.

[Nabs]

Just wanted to chip in on this one, I did a search for "Wifi Calling" on the CPW website and it returned no results

https://www.carphonewarehouse.com/search.html?keyword=wifi%20calling

@Zammo76 do you have a link to the advert you saw?

[smynio]

Hi. I've got my Galaxy s7 edge for about 3 weeks. Got it direct from Vodafone. I'm on red bundle. Had registered for wifi calling but have no feature on my smartphone to turn it on. What is the issue?
Thanks