SMS over WiFi and WiFi calling on phone not bought from network provider? 2 August 2021 at 10:56AM in Mobiles 29 replies 1.7K views

flaneurs_lobster

sandspider2000 said:

Mine works fine for WiFi calling (despite Vodafone saying it shouldn't), but won't work for SMS...

What phone do you have? Just did a quick test, my Moto G 5g Plus on Vodafone PAYM bought from Amazon will send and receive SMS via wi-fi calling. Don't think it's on their list.

Edit: Just repeated test on same phone using 1p(EE). Worked fine.

tinker411

sandspider2000 said:

Thank you. The EE chat person said otherwise - only offered if handset bought from them? Might just be the chat person isn't up to speed. Might get a PAYG EE sim & give it a try.

BIB - more than likely, although to be fair I don't think the EE website has been updated with regards to WiFi calling and 4G calling on PAYG so they may have just got it off there. Be aware though, EE are rolling it out on PAYG so you may not get it straight away from them. 1p Mobile runs on EE but has it as of now (you activate it yourself in the online account) so for easier experience you might want to try them instead.

sandspider2000 said:

Interesting. I have a Xiaomi Poco X3 pro - not on their supported list, and they claim it doesn't work as I bought it from Xiaomi direct. But your phone is on the supported list, or maybe you just got lucky. Maybe mine will start to work one day.

Poco x3 Pro? That's the one that Asda Mobile - via Vodafone - give me WiFi calling and SMS (at least incoming for the latter) but not 4G calling/SMS on so... Yeah. 1p works on it for both quite happily though. Mine was bought on Amazon so isn't a network modded version.

victor2

I have a Nokia 7.2 (rubbish phone, but that's another story) with a Three PAYG SIM in it and it does calls and SMS over WiFi. Didn't have to install anything to get it, it was just there when I put the SIM in. Was the Three 3-2-1 plan but they have had major price increases recently. Still handy for the tiny amount I use it though.

dave_dph

Not sure if it helps, but my Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 works fine for calls and SMS on both 4G and Wifi Calling. I'm on 3 contract (with a home signal box) and my phone was not on their supported list when I last checked. I'm likely to switch to Smarty soon as my 3 contract finished in March and no doubt they'll soon say my tariff is discontinued. Smarty also do not list my phone, but as Smarty runs on 3 I'm pretty sure it will be ok.

oldagetraveller1

I hope this isn't going off topic but I use 1p Mobile. I did use BT Mobile also EE network, left them. Both offer wifi calling which was selected with both networks. 1p sim in a Xiaomi Poco F3, BT in a Samsung Galaxy A71.

The EE signal locally is poor and both phones displayed wificalling at the top of the screen, next to signal indicator, when the network signal was non existent. It only partially worked with both. I could/can hear the other person but they could never hear me!

This has puzzled me. Never been able to determine whether it is/was an EE issue, both phones an issue or even my BT Home Hub 6?

Gloomendoom

I’m using an iPhone SE with a Three sim only contract. Wifi calling and texting works fine.

flaneurs_lobster

Gloomendoom said:

I’m using an iPhone SE with a Three sim only contract. Wifi calling and texting works fine.

It does seem that if wi-fi/4g calling is a must-have then using an iPhone seems to be the way to avoid the various operator "approved" device lists which are never correct/up-to-date (and always seem to only feature the phones that they have available to buy). Every comment I've seen on the subject agrees that Apple devices "just work". 

sandspider2000

Thanks folks.

I'm Android, and wouldn't go iPhone ever!

Will look at 3, as they seem to be most flebile in terms of supported phones. They do have the worst signal round me though. I have heard good things about smarty...

jon81uk

I'm using an iPhone 12 bought from Apple on Three and WiFi calling works when I have poor 4G signal.
Normally at home the WiFi calling doesn't "switch on" because the phone/network sees good enough phone signal, but if I am somewhere with poor signal then WiFi calling works fine.
Not sure on SMS as the only ones I get are marketing or two-factor authentication, I rarely send them so no idea on if they go vi WiFi.

dave_dph

jon81uk said:

Normally at home the WiFi calling doesn't "switch on" because the phone/network sees good enough phone signal, but if I am somewhere with poor signal then WiFi calling works fine.

You can lock Wifi calling on when at home by putting the phone into airplane mode and then switching Wifi back on (on the phone).