Lebara Mobile Wi-Fi Calling Problems - Think Twice Before Using Them!

hondamanvfr750

Well after being with Plusnet/EE mobile for many years and having great service, I was forced to look for a new provider due to Plusnet ending their service.
Shopped around and decided that Lebara SIM only was the way to go.
Due to living in a village with a poor Vodafone signal, wi-fi calling was a must. Initially this wasn't switched on, but a call to Lebara informed me that it would take 48 hours for Vodafone to do whatever it is they have to do.
Lo and behold I then had wi-fi calling (only after switching the phone off and back on again - they forgot to mention that).
All seemed well and good until people told me that when they called my phone it simply went straight through to answerphone even though my phone was switched on at the time.
I then kept checking throughout the day (whilst at home), to see if wi-fi calling was actually showing on my screen.
Several times during the day, I noticed that it was randomly losing wi-fi calling.
Tried switching the phone off and on again, then removing the SIM card, but all to no avail.
Got onto the Lebara chatline and discussed the problem with one of their operatives.
Basically got a load of b*****t from him, such as there is no 5g coverage in your area!! (nothing whatsoever to do with wi-fi calling). Then told to wait 24 hours and call again. Each time I challenged him he came up with more c**p, before stating that he would raise a 'ticket' to get it fixed.
A week later and nothing has changed (except losing my place in the very long call queue trying to make a doctors appointment).
Got onto Lebara again today and told yet again that they will look into it at, and was assured that after 48 hours all will be fixed.
I actually have little faith that this will be the case!
I never ever had this problem whilst on Plusnet/EE despite an equally poor phone signal at home.
As a point of note, my wi-fi signal is at full strength when the wi-fi calling goes AWOL, so I know that isn't the issue.
I would love to know if anyone else has had this problem with wi-fi calling on Lebara?

reddwarf2002

Wi-Fi calling only pops up when the signal is very low around 1 bar and below. Vodafone's preference is to use the mobile network for calls where as EE prefers Wi-Fi calling even when you have full signal.

How many bars do you have when it loses Wi-Fi calling? An alternative is to have your phone in airplane mode and Wi-Fi calling will always stay on. Obviously you need to remember to switch it off when leaving home.

hondamanvfr750

reddwarf2002 said:

Wi-Fi calling only pops up when the signal is very low around 1 bar and below. Vodafone's preference is to use the mobile network for calls where as EE prefers Wi-Fi calling even when you have full signal.

How many bars do you have when it loses Wi-Fi calling? An alternative is to have your phone in airplane mode and Wi-Fi calling will always stay on. Obviously you need to remember to switch it off when leaving home.

That's my problem - I only ever have 1 bar of mobile signal whilst in the house.
It is automatically switching over to wi-fi calling  as it should do, BUT it often completely drop off even with a strong wi-fi signal from my router.
Very, very frustrating when you're in the middle of a call!

reddwarf2002

Maybe the signal is on the borderline of Wi-Fi calling threshold so it is enough for it to think it can use the mobile network for the calls. Does VoLTE calling work on your phone? Is it connected to 4G network when you call or receive a call? Using 2G network could cause incoming calls to go to voicemail I guess.

The only solution regarding WiFi Calling is to either put your phone in airplane mode or switch network. I don't think you can change priority to use WiFi Calling as Vodafone have hidden that option, although I did see an android app which claimed to be able to change preference few years back. I'm not sure if that still works though.

flaneurs_lobster

reddwarf2002 said:

The only solution regarding WiFi Calling is to either put your phone in airplane mode or switch network. I don't think you can change priority to use WiFi Calling as Vodafone have hidden that option, although I did see an android app which claimed to be able to change preference few years back. I'm not sure if that still works though.

Can I ask if that is what I am seeing here, the Calling Preference setting only refers to SIM2 (which is 1p/EE) rather than both? Sorry about huge screen print.

reddwarf2002

flaneurs_lobster said:

reddwarf2002 said:

The only solution regarding WiFi Calling is to either put your phone in airplane mode or switch network. I don't think you can change priority to use WiFi Calling as Vodafone have hidden that option, although I did see an android app which claimed to be able to change preference few years back. I'm not sure if that still works though.

Can I ask if that is what I am seeing here, the Calling Preference setting only refers to SIM2 (which is 1p/EE) rather than both? Sorry about huge screen print.

Yes, that's the option you can change. Currently it will call using WiFi Calling even when you have full network signal. You can change this to Mobile network in which case it will always use mobile network unless the signal is very low. It is possible to modify this on EE and EE MVNO's but not available on Vodafone AFAIK.

I'm not sure of other networks.