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Level 1

9 points

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

67 replies

robroy90 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 12, 2014 6:19 PM in response to mikemcde1

I think it might be more than just 2.4 vs. 5Ghz frequencies also. I think the type of network (such as G, N, or even AC) could be another factor here.

For example, I believe you can use the 2.4Ghz frequency on an N network, as well as a G network.

I have a new Time Capsule on the way, and I am going to connect the iPhone to it via 802.11ac exclusively to see if that performs any better and/or alleviates battery drain. The range and throughput available from an 802.11ac network will be a good upgrade even if it does nothing to fix the issue at hand.

In addition to not having good call performance, my wife complains of rapid battery drain at home. This is now coming into focus, because she is connecting to an older Time Capsule.

I don't think there is any question now there are bugs to be addressed.

Oct 12, 2014 7:22 PM in response to mikemcde1

mikemcde1 wrote:

Try the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz network setting that I listed above. I don't have to put my iPhone 5s into airplane mode and can make and hold very long calls as long as the iPhone 5s is on a 2.4GHz wifi network. If I put it on the 5GHz network in my house calls drop like crazy.

While this is possible, I'm doubtful about this. When in airplane mode it works perfectly, and hasn't dropped. When not in airplane mode it can make or receive calls about 1 in 20 times. I don't see why the frequency would make a difference or not between when the cellular mode is on or off. I'm going to try it on the work network tomorrow. If that doesn't work I can't control what frequency that is, so I'll likely just return it. Personally I'm pretty convinced the problem is Apple, not T-Mobile. I've seen the Android phones and they do have a setting to prefer cell signal or wifi when wifi calling is enabled. iOS 8 doesn't have this and it seems to get confused and won't reattach to the wifi network for calling when a call fails. You have to turn wifi off then back on to get anything to work again.

Seems a shame. The T-Mobile network has worked great when on LTE for me. Combining that with wifi seems like a great solution if it actually worked in iOS 8.

mikemcde1

Level 1

109 points

Oct 12, 2014 7:33 PM in response to Brian Caslis

I Agree. The application shoudn't care if it's 2.4 or 5GHz. It just needs a path to/from the Internet. it is possible that iOS 8.0.2 has issues specific to the 5GHz band.

dmao

Level 1

119 points

Nov 25, 2014 11:53 AM in response to exq0867

I have both a verizon account on my 5s and a TMO personally account on an android. My 5s is running 8.1. So if I swap my TMO sim card into 51, will wifi work on the 5s?

Fofer

Level 1

149 points

Dec 16, 2014 2:30 AM in response to robroy90

You can manually force the iPhone to use WiFi Calling on-demand (for example, when your cellular signal is anything between zero and one and unable to make/maintain a cellular voice call) by simply turning on Airplane Mode and then turning on Wi-Fi. Give it 30 seconds or so and you'll see the device switch to WiFi Calling.

You can tell that you're using WiFi Calling because it says "T-Mobile Wi-Fi" in the status bar, instead of just "T-Mobile."

dt845

Level 1

0 points

Dec 30, 2014 1:59 PM in response to robroy90

Rob,

I still think it is firewall that is blocking WiFi calling. Also I turned on Airplane Mode and then turned on Wifi. However, when I try to dial out I get message "You must disable Airplane Mode to place a call"

MarkThai

Level 1

15 points

Nov 7, 2015 5:14 AM in response to robroy90

I am on iOS 9.1 and trying to use wifi calling at home. I bought this iPhone 5s (for TMO/unlocked) from an Apple Store 2 years ago. I've been using it with Straight Talk until last week I ported my number to TMO.

When I try to turn wifi calling on, it asks me to confirm e911 address, I click save, and the Thank You screen comes on, I click Close, and it return to the wifi calling screen with the button is off. I hard reset my phone, I restore as new iPhone and try to turn wifi calling on even before restore back up, I reset all setting on iPhone, try everything I can think off. So I called TMO, they said everything is ok, my wifi calling feature is on with my plan. They recommend me talking to Apple. Anyway, I haven't got a chance to visit the genius bar yet. This discussion recommend trying turning airplane mode on and wifi on. When I do that, the phone setting grey out, I can't go to select wifi calling.

By the way, my SIM is 50.05. Is that the culprit? Anyone have this problem on iOS 9.1?

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