Fido block VoLTE and Wifi Calling by blacklisting IMEI

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I've just got a Fido Pulse plan recently, bringing my own device, an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S8 purchased directly from Samsung. I chose Fido mainly because of VoLTE and Wifi Calling. I installed the lastest Fido firmware on my phone to make sure there is no compatibility problem with the network. The CSC code of my phone (in the settings menu) is FMC, which is the Fido one. VoLTE and Wifi Calling options are present in the settings.

When I enable VoLTE, calls still fall back on the HSPA+ network. For the Wifi Calling, when I click the link to configure the address, I receive the verification code but it tells my phone seems incompatible and to contact the Fido support.

Fido/Rogers, this is a real shame. My phone is indistinguishable from a Fido one and is fully compatible. Well, the only difference is that you didn't get the money...

It doesn't work because you don't allow non-Fido purchased phone based on their IMEI to register on these networks, for no reason. Some people had luck and customer support were able to add their IMEI in the database to get it work, but a lot, including me, don't. I had this luck with an unlocked iPhone 6 with Rogers (after "fighting" with the customer support for over 2 weeks), but this time, it's been a while I ask them but they say they're unable to do it, that the technical support will call me back in 24h-48h but they never call back or that they're unable to join them. There is no technical problem here, it is just an anti-consumer practice.

So I post this here for everyone to see and for people who might consider to bring their device to Fido to be warned about this (even though there are a lot of other post about this), and for you to see their real face, they're just greedy. To get $50+ for a few Gb isn't enough, they want you to buy the same phone you have from them.

And maybe a representent from Fido can help me to get the technical support to contact me to fix this problem before I give up?

What you, Fido/Rogers, seem to forget, is that people who bring their own devices do not have any contract, they can leave whenever they want. And as the CRTC ban the anti-consumer practice of locking cellphones and unlocking fees, people will be able to move between carriers freely, and it will be a real mess for you.

We are a lot in that case, you're going to lose a lot of clients. And don't forget you're not only in competition with other carriers but also with all VOIP services we have now, from Whatsapp to VOIP.ms

P.S. VoLTE and Wifi calling are no more "future technologies", they are today's technologies. LTE is the main network now, almost everybody use it, and you still prevent us to call on this network. As for Wifi Calling, it is important for people who live in basement or in the country side with a poor network quality. It also relieve the towers as there will be less network trafic.

[FidoNick]

Hey @Kenjuta and thank you for sharing your feedback!

We do understand that VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling are features that are important to our customers and also that many of our customers do bring their own phones.

For the moment these features are only available on Fido device as we cannot guarantee all functionalities of non-Fido phones. If anything changes, then we'll definitely let everyone know!

[Kenjuta]

Is there anything I can do to help you figure out why it's not working to help you guys help enable it on more phones?

Or is it really that you guys have a whitelist and only letting phones sold by you guys to use it as a way to increase phone sale?

You guys keep putting it off as "oh the phone isn't sold by us so nothing we can do" 

I keep bringing up that the phone shows it's provisioned and I keep asking about some whitelist you guys might have but that keeps getting ignored

[FidoMaria]

Hi @Kenjuta,

We don't have a whitelist with IMEIs that can or cannot use our services. Fido phones are simply configured to work on our network and are tested prior to being added to our product line.

While most of our services will work with unlocked phones, we can't guarantee that all services will work properly.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Anonymous]

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@FidoMaria wrote:

Hi @Kenjuta,

We don't have a whitelist with IMEIs that can or cannot use our services. Fido phones are simply configured to work on our network and are tested prior to being added to our product line.

While most of our services will work with unlocked phones, we can't guarantee that all services will work properly.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

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I don't want to be rude, but that's a LIE to say that you don't have an IMEI whitelist for Fido devices. You do have one as the problem is not that the phone is incorrectly configured, but that you are unable to add the IMEI to your system for that reason, and it is voluntary. As I said, a phone configured the same way as a Fido purshased phone, with the FMC (Fido) CSC and everything should normally work without your whitelist. It does work with a lot of carries in USA by simply asking them to enable it (they add the IMEI in their system), like T-Mobile or AT&T for example.

At least be honest to your customers and don't mislead them.

You do that for people to buy phones directly from you and lock them up in a 2 years contract.

You were able to do that for unlocked iPhones with customers and Apple pressure, you can do it for Android phones too. It's been years people are asking for it. Browsing the internet, I've seen people complaining to the CRTC about that, good luck.

[grreaghb]

I'm not quite sure why Fido is insisting that this won't work on phones not purchased from them.  Pretty flimsy excuse if you ask me.  I would ask them to reconsider their stance on this since on the face it seems very anti consumer.

[FidoPamela]

We're always working on new technologies and ways for our customers to help you make the best of our services. We'll update this thread should the service become available later on. 

[grreaghb]

Working on "new technologies"? I'd just like to be able to use the technology that they have already implemented unimpeded by an IMEI whitelist and anti consumer activity.

[Anonymous]

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@grreaghb wrote:

Working on "new technologies"? I'd just like to be able to use the technology that they have already implemented unimpeded by an IMEI whitelist and anti consumer activity.

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I found a solution: I've just switched to Virgin Mobile (Bell) and while they haven't implemented Wifi Calling for Android yet, they provide IMS services for any unlocked and unbranded phone, no whitelist or any **bleep**. VoLTE works great! On the phone they said to me it's not necessary to add the IMEI in my account for it to works but I asked them to do it anyway just in case and they did it without any question.

Bye Fido!

[FidoNick]

We're sad to hear you cancelled @Anonymous

We always want our customers to have as many new features possible, however with some unlocked phones it isn't something that we can support.

If ever you change your mind, we'll be more than happy to have you back  

[grreaghb]

That is the issue.  Fido already supports it!

Take for an example the LG G6, which Fido supports for wifi calling.  There is one model of the LG G6 for Canada (H873) which all the carriers sell, ie. a Telus G6 is identical to a Fido G6 in software and hardware.  The only difference is that Fido only allowing access to wifi calling and VOLTE to phones only purchased from them.  I for one, believe this is against the spirit of the CRTC ruling regarding selling locked phones.  While the phone itself can no longer be carrier locked by law, Fido has now essentially locked their services to outside phones.  Its a shady practice and it does nothing to inspire confidence in your customers.

[grreaghb]

My last post was removed presumably because I linked to telus and their wifi calling policy. It seems only Rogers and Fido are blocking phones that aren't purchased from them.

[grreaghb]

I see Fido has no reply for this, mostly because it would be impossible to defend their position without saying that they are actively acting against their customers best interests.

Simply stated if you didn't buy your device from Fido, you won't get all of the feature of the plan that you are paying for.  You are still paying for them, but you can't use them because they decided to only allow their "own" devices to access them.  Even though their "own" devices are the same across all carriers since the CRTC forced them to end the other anti-consumer practice of locking phones to carriers.  Other canadian carriers seems to have no problem with allowing wifi calling for outside devices, just short-sighted Rogers/Fido acting in exactly the manner that you would expect them to.

Truthfully, I've had good experiences with Fido, and do enjoy their people and service, but this policy is very disheartening.

[grreaghb]

Still no response from Fido?  I'll tell you what, how about you authorize my IMEI in your system to have wifi calling and VOLTE and if it doesn't work, or my phone explodes it's completly my fault.  Shouldn't it be my choice as a customer to use and have access to all of the services that I pay for?

[FidoPamela]

Hey @grreaghb! 

As previously mentioned in this thread, this is not something we block but rather something we don't support at this time. 

We can't guarantee all functionalities on non-Fido phone. This is part of our terms and conditions. At this time, it is not possible to guarantee this feature unless you have a Fido phone. 

[grreaghb]

You've said two different things in your response. Fido can only provide these services to Fido purchased phones, and Fido doesn't actively block. I wonder how they know which phones are purchased from them? Must be magical powers, or an active imei whitelist which blocks all non Fido phones. I'd rather not get a response if it's going to be a complete falsehood.

[FidoPamela]

There are different requirements for the service to work and we can only ensure phones meet these requirements when they are Fido phones at this point in time. As we mentioned, we're always working on new technologies and being able to offer this service to all of our customers, regardless of the type of phone, is definitely something we'll be working on as we build system functionality.

[bmbhkjhkh6]

The user in question's phone meets the requirements to use VoLTE and Wifi Calling.

The issue that Fido customers are having with your response, and that of your colleagues, is that you aren't giving the clear answer that we already know: if the Rogers/Fido backend detects a phone with a Rogers or Fido SIM card installed, it checks:

1) Is the device compatible with VoLTE/Wifi calling (i.e. Samsung S8, S8+, etc)? If yes, it goes to step 2)

2) It then checks the IMEI of that phone against a list of phones sold directly from Rogers/Fido. If the phone wasn't sold by Fido/Rogers, it blocks VoLTE/WiFi calling. This is the issue. Bell doesn't do this, Virgin Mobile doesn't do this, nor does Telus. The only reason Rogers/Fido does this is to frustrate BYOD customers into buying a device from them. It isn't fair though, as we are all paying you the same amount for our plans. It also appears that in doing this, Fido is breaking the law set out by the CRTC. Whatever Fido may state in the terms and conditions about locking services away from unlocked devices is likely void if there's no technical limitation on a customer's phone. You may soon find that Fido and Rogers are in hot water over its practices that are in contradiciton of CRTC rules.

[aummua]

That's it! I had enough!  I was on the fence til I read through all the posts of this thread, but this sheer absolute ridiculous despicable shameful, and quite frankly, customer insulting policy on the part of Fido is the last drop.  VoLTE/WiFi calling only on Fido-purchased phones???   

And the litanny of canned answers from the moderators...  unbearable!!! 

It is not a technical issue, you dingdongs.  Why can't you be honest about it like the other users on here have asked repeatedly?  

Fido's unwillingness to come clean on this issue is the last straw. Not only will I cancel my service and break my 2-year contract--yeah, that's right, this is making me so mad I do not care I have to pay a penalty.  So not only will I cancel, and not only will tell and ask all my friends and relative who are Fido customers to switch as well (it's gonna be an easy sell anyway since I just found a much better and cheaper way to make calls and send SMS/MMS messages), I will go one step further and start an online campaign against you and get my lawyers on the case and start proceedings with the CRTC. It's not about the money--at this point, it's about principles.

Shame on the bizdev team.

[grreaghb]

I agree that honesty is lacking from Fido.  It is very obvious that they actively block outside phones, but they won't say that.  They will say that it "may" work, but in reality it has no chance of working since they have made it impossible for it to work.

Bell & Telus allow outside phones to work with Wifi Calling and VOLTE.

I encourage you and everyone else reading to file a complaint with the CCTS.

https://www.ccts-cprst.ca/

[FidoKenny]

Hey @Anonymous and welcome to the Community.

So you said that the device you have now is a Fido phone but we didn't get the money.

To confirm with you, it's not an unlocked device from another provider?

[Anonymous]

Let me summarize:

The only thing I need for it to work is Fido to register my IMEI in their system. It is the case for a lot of unlocked phones. It need to be done manually by you. Rogers done it before for my iPhone and for a lot of people with this problem. So it is possible. When I go into "About the phone" --> "Status", under "IMS registration" is says "Not registered", which mean the IMEI is not in your system. It's the only thing preventing VoLTE and Wifi Calling to work.

I had several agents on the phone at the customer support and none of them was able to do it for obscure reasons. Some asked me my IMEI and tried but then said it doesn't work because it's not a fido phone (obviously, that's the point). An agent told me he asked someone superior in the hierarchy who told him they are not allowed to do it (which confirm they can but won't) and the level 2 technical support which an agent finally was able to talk to told him that if they are unable to add the IMEI to my account, then there is nothing they can do because there is no procedure in this case for my phone. He told me that there is a procedure for iPhone, so they can escalate the ticket to level 2, which then manage to add the IMEI, but not for my phone. So in my case, they can't escalate the ticket. So there is nothing to do by lack of procedure. The guy even told me that this is a know problem