Wifi calling with Vodafone not available on my phone. (Realme 8)

[barryd999]

I bought a Realme 8 phone this week because I wanted something sub £200 with great battery life, fast charging and Wifi Calling.  Mobile signal is weak here and sometimes it drops off and I also spend a lot of time off grid so the Realme 8 ticked all the boxes. Long story short I cannot get the Wifi calling to work on this phone and after talking to various support lines including finally Vodafone, Vodafone themselves have confirmed that they do not support wifi calling on this phone and that is why it is not available as an option in my settings.  It would appear apparently if I put in an EE sim.

The support agent who to be fair tried all sorts to help me before one of the senior advisors confirmed it was the model of phone that was the issue sent me this link that shows which phones are compatible with Vodafone wifi calling.  https://www.vodafone.co.uk/business/business-mobile-plans/mobile-plan-features/vodafone-wi-fi-callin...

Some of these are quite old so what is the issue?  Is it just that Vodafone have not got round to enabling wifi calling to work on the Realme 8 and if so is it likely to become an option in the near future or should I be looking at another model phone thats on their list. Most of them are no longer available new.

[Amanda]

Thanks for letting us know @barryd999 - I'm sorry to hear you didn't get the help you needed on chat. 

If you pick the option 'Message an adviser' from the automated options, this will skip the BOT and put you straight through to us 🙂

[barryd999]

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@Amanda wrote:

Thanks for letting us know @barryd999 - I'm sorry to hear you didn't get the help you needed on chat. 

If you pick the option 'Message an adviser' from the automated options, this will skip the BOT and put you straight through to us 🙂

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Ok thanks. I went back in and hit the message advisor button. (see below)

I have to go out now though shortly.  

[Amanda]

Your conversation will stay open for 7 days (if no replies are received) - so you've got plenty of time to continue the discussion at the most convenient times for you. 

[barryd999]

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@Amanda wrote:

Your conversation will stay open for 7 days (if no replies are received) - so you've got plenty of time to continue the discussion at the most convenient times for you. 

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Thanks. I see Kelly has replied while I was out.  Ill keep an eye on it. 

[barryd999]

Just to update the thread. I am still on with the messenger service which seems so far much better than the chat service.  At least they have finally managed to fix the app issue which was showing my data as 30gb rather then 150gb and they have kindly increased that to 200gb and knocked a bit of my bill which I appreciate. 

So far though no fix for the wifi calling. They are aware though that its a Realme 8 and I have not bought it through them. However as a loyal long time customer I am really hoping they will add provisioning for this phone to their list of supported items or at the very least try the OTA provisioning for an Oppo Reno 4 Pro 5g phone which they do support and which seems to be a close match for mine.  Some serious brownie points for Vodafone if they crack it.

[hrym]

Wifi calling is, frankly, a mess.   The method Vodafone have chosen is model-specific and requires compatible settngs, rather than simply being universal.   In theory, devices are tested but, yes, there can be a lag a recent models can find themselves not on the list.   There used to be quite a lot of discussion over 4G frequency and OTA data configurations, but I haven't seen any for quite some time, so I can onyl hope that the wifi calling situation will settle down too.

[barryd999]

Seems to be the case. It looks like my long messenger thread I was sent to from this thread is about to result in failure also.  I am still trying to get them to send down an OTA provision to try for a Oppo Reno 4 Pro 5g phone which presumably they already have in the hope it might work but so far they haven't done it. 

[PudseyBear]

You are not alone Barry, I have a Samsung Galaxy S9+ Edge, which appears on the viable list, but it's only on Android 10 and can not be upgraded to Android 12 I tried, so what's going on Vodafone, why say I can when in fact I can't Grr.

Kev.

[barryd999]

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@PudseyBear wrote:

You are not alone Barry, I have a Samsung Galaxy S9+ Edge, which appears on the viable list, but it's only on Android 10 and can not be upgraded to Android 12 I tried, so what's going on Vodafone, why say I can when in fact I can't Grr.

Kev.

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Thanks Kev.  I was considering sending this phone back and replacing it with one that is on the list but from what I can gather unless its bought via Vodafone you may still run into problems with wifi calling.  It does appear to be something that Vodafone need to sort out.  I have even considered moving to EE as I know it will work with them. However the EE signal here is bad to none existent but of course it wont matter if their wifi calling works plus they offer better signal in many of the remote areas I travel to such as Scotland and the Islands.  I suspect Vodafone may well lose customers over this.

Sadly it looks like my efforts and Vodafones in the now very long private messenger thread I was directed to has now dried up.  Apparently Vodafone cannot send an OTA provision for a similar phone as the incorrect IMEI would throw up an error.  So it would look like I am stuck for now at least as it seems so are many others.  I could post up the detail of the (now quite long) messenger conversation if anyone is interested. 

[PudseyBear]

Well I can't say I'm surprised, big outfit, one customer WGAS, buyer beware, don't use Vodafone, this support thing for older phones is also a farce, you can pay literally thousands for a piece of tech made for pennies in China etc and they make HUGE profits, Apple it seems design in obsolescence this being an example, and why I would never buy a new phone.

A disgusting and disgraceful way to treat customers.

Kev.