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iOS 8: T-Mobile WiFi Calling on 5s issues

Is anyone out there having problems with WiFi calling w/ their iPhone on T-Mobile?


I updated my Wife's 5s to iOS 8, and enabled the feature in settings because we suffer from terrible calling performance on T-Mobile (1 maybe 2 bars of signal) in our home. She still drops calls regularly. I dropped a call three times while speaking with T-Mo support about it last night.


They told me that they had to provision the feature on the account, which they did a couple of days ago, but even after doing so, it still doesn't seem to be working. How can I tell if the iPhone is using WiFi on a call? Is there an option to force it to use WiFi for calls?


I have an (older, rectangle 2nd gen) Time Capsule in bridge mode that serves WiFi to the house, but I don't think it is the issue because other wireless devices work just fine and I have no other WiFi issues. Also, the other phones on our T-Mobile account are all Android phones that support WiFi calling and they all seem to be working flawlessly with WiFi calling and indicate when the phone is placing the call over WiFi.


So, aside from using a different WiFi base station (such as T-Mobile's new WiFi router - which I won't do unless it supports bridge mode because I have a much more robust Cisco firewall doing the routing) I can only conclude this is an Apple/T-Mobile issue with their implementation of WiFi calling.


Just wondered what other iOS 8 & T-Mobile users were seeing with WiFi calling.


Thanks in advance, any helpful info would be appreciated.


-Rob

Posted on Sep 18, 2014 7:31 AM

Reply
67 replies

Sep 25, 2014 8:04 AM in response to robroy90

Hi Rob,


Well I am glad that its partially working for you but I am still out of luck with no WiFi calling. I changed from iPhone 5S to iPhone 6 and same issue at work place. It works at home but not in the office and that where I need the WiFi calling most. I try to use your strategy about turning on Airplane mode and then WiFi but I can't get to Setting-Phone-WiFi calling option as its grayed out with a label that says Airplane mode on. So I am just wondering how you are able to get around Airplane mode on and WiFi calling on.... still no help from tmobile or apple.


Thanks,

Oct 2, 2014 2:06 PM in response to abking

I just thought I would update everyone on the latest developments from my experiences with this.


I updated my wife's 5s to 8.0.2, and didn't expect nor experience any difference. It is still dropping calls left & right when at home with both the WiFi and Cell Radios enabled. If she goes into Airplane mode, and then just enables the WiFi radio, the calls do seem to work for the most part. She might have had one drop.


If she tries to make or take a call with both Cell and WiFi radios enabled, it is painful. It will regularly drop calls or make them inaudible at best.


Last night, the new LTE Booster (not to be confused with the Cellspot WiFi router) was finally delivered. I installed it and she made a couple of calls. It seems better, but still not great. I think it is just simple RF theory at work here, we are not near a T-Mo tower, and the signal is very weak. I am going to experiment with the placement of the tandem of booster units to see if I can maximize it, but I am not holding my breath.


Even setting aside my frustration with T-Mo's apparent inability to provide sufficient coverage to anyone not within a 10 mile radius of a top 20 metro market, I fail to see why they can't get WiFi calling right on the iPhone when they so desperately need it to improve service delivery to their customers.


The iPhone just can't seem to decide when to use tower vs. an access point. This has not been my experience with Android devices. My Note 3 and my Son's Galaxy S5 both have no issues with making/taking WiFi calls. The only issue I see on Android is it sometimes takes as long as 10-15 seconds or so to hear a ring after hitting the send call button.


I just hope future updates to iOS and/or updated carrier settings from T-Mo can improve this...

Oct 4, 2014 10:24 PM in response to robroy90

Here's my update.


For a few days, while in my apartment, I left my phone with cellular off. T-Mo Wi-Fi was stable and worked the entire time. When I left the apartment, sometimes I wouldn't turn cell data back on and you actually still get calls and texts. Just no interwebs.


For a couple days now, I've left cell data on and the T-Mo Wi-Fi hasn't come and gone like it is before. This isn't related to the 8.0.2 update either, since I hadn't updated right away while I was testing this stuff out. I'm not sure what changed, since the signal strength is the same.. but I am assuming other T-Mo users got the text from their HQ that said they are making upgrades or somethingarather? Maybe that had something to do with it?


Anyway, mine seems to be fixed now.. I only hope I didn't jinx it.

Oct 6, 2014 1:31 PM in response to yummymayo

FYI..

Not sure if this will work for anyone, but I saw mentioned on a forum somewhere that there was a potential fix.


Since my phone was dropping calls when on wi-fi, I decided to give it a try last night. I haven't had any issues yet today.


Steps.


1 - connect iPhone to iTunes.

2 - select the phone in iTunes, then in the 'Options' section at the bottom of the main panel, select 'Allow wi-fi syncing' on the phone.

3 - click 'Apply'.


There were a few apps that synced over which I deleted, but I'm not getting dropped calls.

Oct 7, 2014 8:07 PM in response to robroy90

tthe only reason why I got the iPhone 6 from t-mobile was to be able to use the wifi calling future and until now I haven't been able to do so. It seems to work in public wifi areas but not in my house. I have one of the fasteat Internet service from Comcast so is nothing related to the Internet. I also have called t-mobile and apple several times and no one can tell me what's going on. I feel very frustrated. I have the impression the the iOS sofware still need a lot of work ahead.

Oct 8, 2014 8:03 AM in response to robroy90

So a quick update. After going for a day with no problems, I ended up turning wi-fi calling off. My calls were going straight to voicemail.


Today, I contacted T-Mobile who put me through to a senior level support person. I directed him to look at the very detailed troubleshooting that ryanfromlaura took the trouble to perform. The support person will be forwarding that info to the engineers and will be calling back to advise if any information is required from me.


Will post back with what I hear. At this point, I'm leaving wi-fi calling off until there is some resolution.

Oct 8, 2014 11:21 AM in response to robroy90

Update: Got a call back from Apple earlier. There are a couple of points which may prove helpful to others.


1 - Apparently one of the issues is might that of the SIM. There are two types of SIMs apparently. 3G and 3GG. The latter being the newest. The newest is the one you want and is shown simply as 60.00 on the SIM card. I confirmed I had the latter, so this was not my issue.


2 - He suggested I update my emergency address in settings-phone-wifi calls. This meant tapping the save button even if the address was already there. You should get a confirmation message saying the address was updated. Before performing this step, my incoming calls were going straight to voicemail. Now they seem to be fine.


Will see how long this stays on. If anyone else can verify this works for them, please post back here. Thanks!

Oct 9, 2014 11:18 PM in response to robroy90

I seem to have solved my wifi calling issues with a T-Mobile rep today. I was told that WiFi calling will not work on a 5ghz network. I blew him off at first and explained how every 5s in my household (2 total) running iOS 8.0.2 had the same issue and all Andriod devices in my house could hold a WiFi call.. I could track the call drops with WiFi network drop outs on the iPhones (could see the wifi icon go away). I have also tried 2 different routers during this troubleshooting, one Apple Airport Extreme (5th Generation?) and after issues with it I went to T-Mobile and got a Cellspot.


I asked him if the Samsung devices that my kids use were 2.4ghz only and the answer is yes. I put all laptops and computer and tablets and apple tv's and all other devices in my house that will take a 5ghz signal on the 5ghz network on the Cellspot. I then put the iPhones on the 2.4ghz network. I can now hold a call on the iPhones with this set up. Had a 45 min call with a bank today. No issues.


Now if this is a real thing that WiFi calling will only work on a 2.4ghz network or if iOS 8.0.2 has issues with a 5ghz network? Who knows...

Oct 10, 2014 1:16 PM in response to mikemcde1

Thanks for sharing your experience with the 2.4 vs. 5Ghz Wifi radios. I will check that out on my network. I have an older time capsule (in bridge mode)that I think is only capable of 2.4, but I also added a newer AP from another vendor that will definitely do 2.4 and 5.0 so I will play around with the various radios that my wife's 5s connects to to see if there is a difference there.


I am still not quite sure what the issue is, but I still have a hunch it is an issue with iOS, and perhaps specifically the radio/chipset the 5s uses. I want to try it with an iPhone 6 to see if it is still an issue, just have to find one to borrow.

Oct 10, 2014 6:02 PM in response to robroy90

@muadibe2010: Thanks for that update on the SIM card. I re-checked my wife's SIM card and she must have the "3G" version, as it has the v50.05 on it.


She is going to go to a local T-Mo store tomorrow to see if they have the new 60. cards and swap it for her.


I will keep everyone updated. Thanks again to everyone for sharing their experiences and info they collect. This sort of thing definitely takes a village!

Oct 12, 2014 8:29 AM in response to robroy90

I’ve done some further testing since after having a stable wifi connection, my battery was draining pretty quickly.


I disconnected the the ethernet cable from my iMac and connected to the 5ghz wifi on the TMO cellspot. Ran Speedtest and got the same really low results as with when connecting using iPad or iPhone. Connecting the same iMac to the 2.4ghz had the same success as the iOS devices. So, this wasn’t necessarily an iOS issue for me. I wasn’t expecting that.


I decided to reconnect my Airport Extreme and test both frequencies on that router. Speedtest ran fine every time on both frequencies on iMac, iPhone and iPad.


I then switched back to the TMO Cellspot router and tested all three there. Again, problems on the 5ghz network on the TMO cellspot. I unplugged power to both modem and cellspot, then reconnected. Since then, I’ve had no battery drain issues, and no wifi calling issues.


For example, I unplugged my phone at about 8 this morning. I’ve downloaded two apps and demo’d one showing a brief movie clip (from an Air Video server on a Mini). I’ve made one brief phone call and am still at 99% at 11:20am. I was at 100% at 11:13am. All this while wi-fi calling is turned on using the 5ghz frequency.


On iPhone 6.

Oct 12, 2014 5:35 PM in response to robroy90

robroy90 wrote:


Here is the latest update from last night's visit to the Apple Store:


Spoke to a Genius and she did some checking, and did a rather interesting test. She put the phone into Airplane mode, and then just turned back on WiFi only, leaving off the cellular radio.


We then placed a test call there in the store from my phone to the 5s. It worked. This proves to me that the feature definitely works, and appears to be properly configured on the phone and T-Mobile's back end. The phone does have Carrier Update v17.1 - but I also was having trouble finding the switch in settings to specifically enable WiFi calling, so perhaps the carrier update removed that switch? It is either that or I am not looking in the right place. For those who can still see it, exactly what are the steps to get there so I can check to see if it has been pulled from mine due to the carrier update?


So, after leaving the Apple store, I then went home to try this same test on my home LAN/WiFi that has the Cisco Firewall at the border. I put the phone into Airplane mode again, and then just turned on the WiFi radio only, leaving the cellular radio off. Much to my surprise, the WiFi call worked there as well.


This tells me that my theory on the TCP/UDP ports was probably incorrect. I made no further changes to the firewall, and the 5s appears to have used the available open ports just like my Android phones do. In one sense, this is good because it tells me more specific firewall rule changes are apparently not necessary.


However, this is bad because it then tells me that there must be issues with the algorithm that Apple/T-Mo use on the phone to determine when a call is made or taken which radio to use. It seems to me that under iOS 8.0 and the current carrier settings the phone must be set to prefer a weak cell signal over even a strong WiFi signal. I can't think of any other explanation, because if the cellular radio is unavailable, the WiFi calls are pristine and seem to work well.


At this point, my wife has a workaround, but it is a huge pain. She has to remember to put the phone into Airplane mode when she gets home, and turn it off when she leaves the house. I sincerely hope that future iOS 8.x and/or carrier updates address this and set the phone to either ignore the cellular radio for calls for Wifi, or use it only after an attempt of a WiFi call fails.


I see this exact same problem on an iPhone 6 bought from T-Mobile yesterday. I had hoped that wifi calling would fix any issue with bad reception at my house but so far it's useless unless in airplane mode but with wifi on. In areas with an LTE signal, the T-Mobile call clarity is great.

iOS 8: T-Mobile WiFi Calling on 5s issues

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