WiFi Calling for Samsung S9 Not purchased through Fido

[xbahamut]

I got my S9 from Samsung directly and it seems Fido does not enable WiFi calling for devices not purchased through Fido directly. Is there a way to enable the feature that the carrier locks specifically to the their own devices? Seems unreasonable that you can't use all your phone features because you didn't buy it from the carrier themselves.

[rem123]

So after much fighting over this with numerous people at Fido I (think I) figured it out. 

1. talk to a rep - Yes I know this seems impossible as you will sit on hold for DAYS at a time.  It took me 2 weeks to speak to a human being in North America. Tell them you want Wi_fi calling "enabled" on your account.

2. Give that person your IMEI number and tell them to add it to their "exceptions" - ya see Fido and Rogers are the ONLY providers which blocks users from using Wi-Fi calling unless you buy the phone from them. How they do this is by not permitting the IMIE to be automatically added (Settings - About Phone)

3. Ensure you don't have any ad blockers installed on your phone.  Also, my model SM-G781W is permitted as one they "allow" (I hope so, since they sell it)

4. Finally (and this is the BIG one) have them reset the connection on the number (once the IMEI number is in). This was the issue with me.  It's needs a reboot from THEIR end as well as YOUR end.

So, I glommed a little bit of information from each person I contacted and then TAUGHT the next person what they should be doing to get this to work. They say "We don't support this" well, yes you do - you just have not been trained. My Wi-Fi calling has been working for about 4 days now. If it goes down, I am immediately moving my family back to koodoo. I can not tell you how many HOURS/DAYS/WEEKS I have been on hold or waiting for a chat to engage. 

[Original_Lucy]

Hi @rem123 glad you figured it out. Great tips for anyone else who might have this issue. Cheers 

[patrickchan]

I have s9plus from west Edmonton mall Samsung store. all I had to be is post paid fido. get an new sim from fido store in wem 2018 March. get apn setting reset. and all good. so goto fido store get new simcard have the staff check ur apn settings. also have fido call centre reset ur settings to make sure call quality is good. 

[danthemanx]

@patrickchan no, in most cases doing what you said is not sufficient. Trust me.

Sometimes it requires the tech staff to open a ticket and look into your backend configuration and possibly have to fix it for the user.

So you just got lucky that that worked for you, stop providing that as a simple solution to everyone.

[FidoKenny]

Hey @xbahamut

Your compatible device must have been purchased from Fido. If you have a non-Fido device and no conflicting services, Wi-Fi Calling may work, but we can’t assure that the feature will work properly. 

[xbahamut]

Is there a way to get wifi calling to work? Seems shady that fido doesn't allow built in device features to work because fido didn't make any money on the device..

[Temagami]

Right now the Wi-Fi calling has an issue across their network (so they told me)

But what you need to do is have the tech support person add your phone to their network. Goto Settings - About Phone and give them the IMEI number

[Zxaz]

xbahamut......of course there is a way if you can read between the line!!!      fido/rogers are the only provider who block these feature when you buying your phone elsewhere....even if its a purely CANADIANS phone!!

they punishing their own costumer....they gonna told you that their phone are tested to their network and not your....dont accept that..its pure lie   any Canadians phone are compatible to their network if supported!! since they support around all the majority of new phone like your s9 it would work with any other provider except fido/rogers because they simply blocking your own phone....

hope it helped to resolve your problem...i lived this situation last years and resolved it in a wink of the eye!!

im a happy consumer now where i am.....

[xbahamut]

Thanks for the feedback, would be nice if there was a solution to this. I don't get any reception at home so i get all my missed calls and texts in the morning when I leave. Sucks when you can't use the services you pay for but consumers on all other carriers are able to. Seems like a stranglehold for no reason.

[xbahamut]

Just figured out a solution that should work for all devices. I put my SIM card into and iPhone X and enabled WiFi Calling that way. This triggers the account to activated WiFi Calling and I put it back into my Samsung S9 and it works now. Hope this helps for other people with the same issue. Should work with any iPhone from the SE and up that have WiFi Calling enabled.

[danthemanx]

Hey @xbahamut I've tried this numerous times before. You're right, that works but not completely unfortunately. When you put the SIM back in your S9, after a little bit it gets deprovisioned again. That's what keeps happening for me. So the first minutes, the device works and has IMS services showing as Registered in the Status settings.

After a little bit I lose VoLTE and Wifi Calling.

Does it work permanently for you or does it deprovision as well after minutes?

[xbahamut]

Hey @danthemanx , you are correct. I worked for me for about a day and it required the sign up again back on the S9. Seems like there is no solution to this. I ended up getting an S10 and it works flawlessly on the new device.

[danthemanx]

That's too bad honestly. When you reach Fido support they usually send you to Rogers I think which handles tech support for them and they always end up saying that since May 24 of this year they now support grey-market devices with VoLTE from Galaxy S8 and above. 

I wish a Fido rep here could elaborate on that and grey-market devices since obviously our S9 still isn't working.

[FidoAnthonyZ]

Hey @danthemanx

While Fido does support VoLTE on grey market devices from the Samsung Galaxy S8 and above, we only support Wi-Fi calling on devices that are purchased through Fido. 

Just to make sure that you understand the difference between the 2 services, Wi-Fi calling is a service that allows you to connect to the Fido network to make phone calls through your Wi-Fi connection, let's say if you have reduced reception in your area. VoLTE is a service that let's you call over your LTE network instead of only on 3G to ensure a crystal clear audio quality. 

If ever changes are made to this matter, we'll update this thread.

Cheers. 

[danthemanx]

Hi @FidoAnthonyZ,

Yes thanks I fully understand the difference and how both VoLTE and Wifi calling are handled by IMS Registration. However, you're missing the point entirely. My point is that I and a lot of others have the S9 on Fido, which is newer than the S8 and still don't have working VoLTE (we're not even talking about wifi calling).

So really I'm not sure why its being said that grey-market S8 and above are supported for VoLTE when my Galaxy S9 still doesn't have VoLTE for some reason and support is not helpful to fix the problem. IMS registration says Not registered in my settings even though my VoLTE option is On. Calls drop back to 3G and it's really a pain.

[FidoAnthonyZ]

Hey @danthemanx I get where you're coming from.

It should work since the S9 is newer than the S8. I'll send you a PM so we can take a look. 

[Temagami]

I have a s20FE.  We moved our whole family over from Telus where wi-fi calling worked great. Before that we were will Bell - Wi-Fi calling worked great. Brought our phone 'with us'. Fido rep said "no problem it'll work fine'. Nope. 

Called tech support many times. They said adding the IMEI number should work but are now "experiencing a wifi issue across the network" (heard that excuse a month ago as well) 

So am I dumping fido for my family and going back to telus? Will anyone call me back?

[FidoVan]

Hi there @Temagami and welcome to the Community!

Sorry to read about your experience. We can try and check this out together here see if we can successfully activate your Wi-Fi calling feature. Can you please provide us the following information:

1. What is the device you are using?

2. What is your OS version?

3. What happens exactly when yo go throuth these steps? 

Please let us know!

[Temagami]

Hmm... last message not posting- lets' try again...

I'm using an S-20 FE. The sales rep checked and said it will work (it was the ONE thing I asked when we moved over) and he even said Fido sells the same model

I use the latest version of Android - it consistently updates.

Nothing sticks, once I go thorugh all the steps, I get: "Looks like your device isn't eligible for Wi-Fi calling" which means they not ALLOWING it - not that it can't do it. 

[Cawtau]

Hello Temagami,

  Welcome to the community!

  I understand you were previously able to use the feature with a different provider. However, which variant of the device do you have?

  Samsung makes their devices with slight variations depending on the region they are intended on being used. Some of those differences might include differing bands/frequencies and/or different chipsets, etc. To differentiate the different versions, or variants, Samsung adds a specific letter to the end of the model version to designate the region. For example, the Canadian variant is SM-G781W while an US variant is SM-G781U (see here).

  Generally, devices not purchased nor available from Fido won't likely be supported for certain functions, like voLTE and Wifi-calling . However, Fido has allowed certain grey-market (ie Canadian version of devices carried by Fido but purchased elsewhere; SM-G781W) to use the service. If you have a different variant, it would not be available from Fido.

  Unfortunately, if your model is not the Canadian variant (SM-G781W), it would not be considered grey-market even though it is a Galaxy S20 FE. If that is the case, it's likely you won't be able to access those features with your phone.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers