Hi, complete newby here, just bought an FP4.
I’m completely new to VoLTE and VoWifi or wifi calling but interested in getting them to work. I often work in basements or thick buildings with no coverage but wifi routers, so I’d like to be able to send and receive calls without cellular coverage.
I’ve followed all guides to turn them on, but I’m having trouble to check whether they’re actually active, because currently I can’t check (teleworking from home right now). Can someone help me out?
First the facts:
I read somewhere that in this state I shouldn’t be able to make calls and send SMS, but I can, and with good quality. So what’s going on? How can I check whether I can make Wifi calls?
I tried turning plane mode on, connecting to wifi and trying, but the phone tells me to turn it off or connect to a wifi network (I’m connected). I tried turning off the SIM card itself, but still I couldn’t call or get called. Also, I never see any special icon.
In sum, how to check whithout actually going into a basement without coverage but with a wifi router? How can I debug this?
I called Simyo and indeed they confirmed that in theory the FP4 is on their list on accepted handsets but somehow mine isn’t registered. The first representative promised to have it fixed within a day but nothing happened. Today a second representative confirmed that it should be supported but couldn’t manually register it for me, and later told me that they had to tune something at their end so that it’d work “after a few days”. Let’s hope for the best… It should work because Orange/Simyo is switching 3G off this year, which means all Spanish FP users will be left on 2G unless our handsets are truly supported.
There’s something I don’t understand though. When idle and connected to data, my screen shows the ‘5G’ icon, but as soon as I start a call the icon changes to ‘3G’. However, during a call I can browse webpages. I thought only 4G supports simultaneous voice and data streams…
That means that the phone in that network is unable to use voice over 5G, so it has to step back. Obviously 4G calling (VoLTE) doesn’t work, either, and so it falls to 3G. But at least 3G was the first radio access technology that allowed phones to call and browse the web at the same time (which the phone needs to support, too, but that seems to be the default for quite a few years now already).
I have seen the FP5 staying at 5G during a call already, so in theory that should work (we leave details like 5G NSA vs. SA aside here).
Also, what’s the proper way of checking IMS registration and Wifi Calling on any phone, not just Fairphone? My dad’s Realme C51 is on Simyo too, but it doesn’t react to the USSD code *#*#4636#*#*, which I thought was the only universally implemented code. Also, it has VoWifi enabled, but when I enable plane mode, connect it to wifi and try to make a call, it nevertheless asks me to leave plane mode or connect to wifi.
They clearly have been fiddling with some settings in the background, because two days ago suddenly the RCS service got activated and I got messages that were sent to me days before, and I could use Google Messages to text over wifi with images and sound instead of SMS.
However the main problem isn’t solved, I can’t make calls over wifi, so today I called againt. This time they pretended I had misunderstood and the “few days” turned out to be “several months” or even the end of the year. They didn’t even want to promise they’re supporting the FP4 at all in the end because they only support “last generation phones” although FP3 is clearly supported, regardless of my remark that 3G is being turned off everywhere this year. They even hinted that only seven people have requested the FP4 to be supported, and I have been the most insisting. Are there so few users of FP in Spain?
I must confess I’m starting to regret buying this phone. Might I get a better chance by switching from Simyo to Orange?
They gave me a USSD code (* 140 * IMEI NUMBER # delete the blank spaces) to force the registration of my IMEI on the network but I haven’t had any luck yet. IMS not registered and VoLTE not available.
There’s at least one report of FP4 wifi calling and VoLTE working on O2, which is strange, because it’s on Movistar’s network instead of Orange’s.
Anyway, I just signed a contract with O2. I specifically checked FP4’s support with the representative before going ahead, and she promised I’ll have it. Wish me luck…
On top of that O2 has Catalan speaking representatives: two points Lesson: Fairphone isn’t providing the best information on carrier support, because Movistar/O2 wasn’t supposed to support FP4. There should be a user-validated list for each country. Note: interestingly, it seems to be true that you can’t have both VoLTE and VoWIFI activated:
