Wifi Calling on Samsung S21 Ultra

[PHewson69]

I have had my S21Ultra for a little over a year. Glad to have a Samsung again.

My home network was Amplifi HD connected to Virgin ISP. WiFi calling was working, even with 2 bars of phone signal and 100% Wifi it would select Wifi Calling. Perfect

Something in the last couple of months has changed, as Wifi calling ONLY works if I turn on FlightMode and turn on wifi.

Reason I noticed it, was that I changed ISP to Zen, new network, Ubiquiti WAPs with a cloud key controller.

Went back to my original network, as Virgin is still active and still no WiFi calling.

Spoke to my ISP, admittedly accusing them by accident, of blocking certain ports, as I was sure it was working before I changed from Virgin, but even going back to Virgin service it did not want to work.

My conclusion that an update, either from VodaFone or Samsung has broken our WiFi calling feature.
The WiFi Calling screen is a giveaway, 'Make and Receive calls over a WiFi connection whenever available'

'Whenever' is the key word.. so not when I have 1, 2 or 4 bars of cellular service, but whenever I am connected to WiFi.

VodaFone / Samsung, Wifi is available, so what has happened to the software either of you have been playing with? It is the only logical explanation..

Voda wanted me to reset my phone, as that is all they can recommend and Tobi likes to send you texts on how to enable WiFi calling.
##~##, it was working, what have you broken? Do not tell me it is my phone as that does not wash with me. And no I did not buy it from Voda, as I did not want to pay for it over the next 3 years. I buy my phones outright from John Lewis.

Regardless of  where I buy my phone from, I pay for a service, which I am not getting.

Please fix it.

[PHewson69]

Appreciate the feedback @anuraagpaul

If Voda's 'Data' network is not up to the task then that should not be a customers issue, and it should not dictate how we would like to use our phones, my preference would be as I have stated above,  If I am authenticated to a WiFi network it should use that, regardless of signal strength. Or at least let us choose as you say, "WiFi preferred".

I need to find time to progress this with Vodafone, but I fear I will just be talking to someone reading a script and not able to technically help.

[anuraagpaul]

No problem at all.

I totally agree with you on that one. We should at least have the option to select if we can’t the called to be preferred over Wi-Fi or not. Same goes for such an option on the iPhones.

By default it would be set to calls preferred over mobile network and as most users would not understand nor care about this setting (or even know it’s there or how to access it) then it wouldn’t really affect the network performance of a Wi-Fi network anyway. 

Another thing to add, When I previously used my OP7 Pro, never mind VoWi-Fi, I did not even have VoLTE (4G calling) activated on the phone for Vodafone. I had to manually install a file to access the hidden setting within it to activate both these options, was quite ridiculous really that I had to go through that rigmarole just to get it all working. I bet that wasn’t the case with a SIM card from 3 (though I hadn’t tested) as it would’ve probably just been within the settings in the phone to auto provision but with Vodafone, manual provisioning (basically forcing it to..) would get 4G and Wi-Fi calling to work. It did work flawlessly after that (though very slightly buggy on the Wi-Fi call connection as you’d see it briefly drop out here and there but swiftly connect back up).  

Previous to that had a OnePlus 5 in which I did the same thing, whatever I tried I could not get 4G calling to work (Wi-Fi calling was completely out of the window then). But I stuck a 3 SIM card and hey presto, 4G & Wi-Fi calling just works! 

I mean I guess it’s probably because these phones hadn’t been sold by Vodafone but so what? Why not just include auto provision settings anyway. My OP5 which my mum now uses (like more than 5 years old now) was used abroad in India this year using an Indian SIM and guess what? 4G and Wi-Fi calling worked perfectly fine! Crazy isn’t it?

Just Vodafone being awkward with certain things like they always are. Just like they were with SMS over Wi-Fi yet the likes of EE and I think it was 3 had supported it for years, with O2 eventually coming in and then finally Vodafone (but again not all handsets, (possibly O2 is in the same boat like that as well).

Asides from a few snags which were stupidly annoying at the time, they have been pretty spot on for the 7 odd years I’ve been with them.