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Carrier No VoLTE on AT&T with sim free iPhone 6/6+?

T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Original poster
Aug 3, 2006
8,315
2,410
Oregon
I live in Oregon, one of the areas where AT&T has enabled VoLTE.

I had purchased a Verizon iPhone 6+ Back in December and I noticed that my phone was on LTE during calls. I'm using this on the AT&T network.

Earlier this month, I purchased a second iPhone 6+ and I went with the unlocked model because it happened to be in stock. When I make phone calls on this new phone, I notice that it drops to 4G. I'm also using this on AT&T.

Is anyone else using a sim free iPhone 6/6+ in an area where AT&T has enabled VoLTE experiencing the this? I've contacted AT&T several times now and they can't offer an explanation, I'm not sure if there is a limitation in their system or something wrong with this phone.
 
T5BRICK said:
Is anyone else using a sim free iPhone 6/6+ in an area where AT&T has enabled VoLTE experiencing the this? I've contacted AT&T several times now and they can't offer an explanation, I'm not sure if there is a limitation in their system or something wrong with this phone.
Click to expand...

I live and work in Boston, but I live on the outer edges of where AT&T indicates VoLTE is available. Here at home, my sim-free phone drops off LTE when I make calls. I'll try to remember to test it at work tomorrow, which is downtown and solidly inside where VoLTE is shown on the map.
 
T5BRICK said:
I live in Oregon, one of the areas where AT&T has enabled VoLTE.

I had purchased a Verizon iPhone 6+ Back in December and I noticed that my phone was on LTE during calls. I'm using this on the AT&T network.

Earlier this month, I purchased a second iPhone 6+ and I went with the unlocked model because it happened to be in stock. When I make phone calls on this new phone, I notice that it drops to 4G. I'm also using this on AT&T.

Is anyone else using a sim free iPhone 6/6+ in an area where AT&T has enabled VoLTE experiencing the this? I've contacted AT&T several times now and they can't offer an explanation, I'm not sure if there is a limitation in their system or something wrong with this phone.
Click to expand...

There is no reason why it shouldn't work, though I heard rumors that some European iPhones (same model number as Sprint) had SIM-provisioning issues when attempting to use VoLTE in the US. First make sure that you have changed the settings to enable LTE to operate on voice and data. Then if that doesn't work see if getting a new SIM from AT&T helps.
 
chrfr said:
I'll try to remember to test it at work tomorrow, which is downtown and solidly inside where VoLTE is shown on the map.
Click to expand...

Thanks, let me know what you find!

KPOM said:
There is no reason why it shouldn't work, though I heard rumors that some European iPhones (same model number as Sprint) had SIM-provisioning issues when attempting to use VoLTE in the US. First make sure that you have changed the settings to enable LTE to operate on voice and data. Then if that doesn't work see if getting a new SIM from AT&T helps.
Click to expand...

I have voice and data enabled on LTE, so I don't think that is the problem. I'll ask for a new sim next time I'm near an AT&T store.
 
Applejuiced said:
Also give att the imei number to see if they need to enable the feature on their end.
Click to expand...

I had them enter it into their system yesterday and it didn't seem to help. If a new sim doesn't do it, I think I may need to contact tier two support.
 
T5BRICK said:
I had them enter it into their system yesterday and it didn't seem to help. If a new sim doesn't do it, I think I may need to contact tier two support.
Click to expand...

Interesting.
Let us know how it went.
Did their system had any trouble recognizing what device it was? Cause if it couldn't recognize it then it would be very hard to enable iPhone features on that line.
I had a Verizon iPhone 5 on my att line and whenever I gave them the imei they had no idea what phone it was and couldn't add an iPhone data plan.
Had to give them another att iPhone 5 imei to set it up on my family plan.
 
when i was messing around with Verizon on iPhone 6 launch day, i discovered that taking a few days seemed normal when waiting for VoLTE to come online

i recommend reseeding the sim card

do this when u have wifi ( i think it matters i am not sure )

turn off iPhone
remove sim
wait 5 minutes
turn on iPhone
wait for the iPhone to boot up, wait for the hone screen to come up
wait for it to say no sim card
insert sim card

this forces the iPhone to load new carrier profiles into the sim card and to update the sim card and all of its sim card stuff

this seemed to bring all kinds of features back, like VoLTE, Visual Voice Mail, Wifi Tethering, and Wifi Calling

it seemed to me, that there are some things the iPhone cannot do uif you power it up with the sim card installed.

some companies like verizon even recommend you reseed the sim card on a regular basis, to update the PRL tables.

when lte came out verizon stopped allowing people to dial *228 to get carrier tables , and you have to reseed instead. and this mechanism also refreshed my sim card , and enabled the features i was not getting
 
Last edited:
rigormortis said:
when i was messing around with Verizon on iPhone 6 launch day, i discovered that taking a few days seemed normal when waiting for VoLTE to come online

i recommend reseeding the sim card

do this when u have wifi ( i think it matters i am not sure )

turn off iPhone
remove sim
wait 5 minutes
turn on iPhone
wait for the iPhone to boot up, wait for the hone screen to come up
wait for it to say no sim card
insert sim card

this forces the iPhone to load new carrier profiles into the sim card and to update the sim card and all of its sim card stuff

this seemed to bring all kinds of features back, like VoLTE, Visual Voice Mail, Wifi Tethering, and Wifi Calling

it seemed to me, that there are some things the iPhone cannot do uif you power it up with the sim card installed.

some companies like verizon even recommend you reseed the sim card on a regular basis, to update the PRL tables.

when lte came out verizon stopped allowing people to dial *228 to get carrier tables , and you have to reseed instead. and this mechanism also refreshed my sim card , and enabled the features i was not getting
Click to expand...

This didn't seem to work, unfortunately.
 
T5BRICK said:
This didn't seem to work, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

you should be able to log into your myatt account online, and see if the IMEI number is registered in the system correctly. Also, go to settings/general/about, and make sure the carrier version is 18.1
 
T5BRICK said:
I had them enter it into their system yesterday and it didn't seem to help. If a new sim doesn't do it, I think I may need to contact tier two support.
Click to expand...
I read over on howardforums.com that in order for you to be able to use VoLTE in an area that has it, you must have a phone number that's from an area that also has VoLTE. In my case, I have a non-local number from an area that doesn't yet have VoLTE and cannot access VoLTE in Boston where there is coverage.
 
yes.
listen to solodogg

when you switch a sim card from one phone to another phone, AT&T does not register your new imei # automatically. i had this problem, and because of it i was not eligible for a device unlock, until i had an att store manually register the imei


you can also go to an AT&T store to make sure the imei is assigned to your account
 
rigormortis said:
yes.
listen to solodogg

when you switch a sim card from one phone to another phone, AT&T does not register your new imei # automatically. i had this problem, and because of it i was not eligible for a device unlock, until i had an att store manually register the imei


you can also go to an AT&T store to make sure the imei is assigned to your account
Click to expand...

I have used Verizon iPhones with AT&T and have not had to do this. I'm not sure why the SIM-free should be any different.
 
KPOM said:
I have used Verizon iPhones with AT&T and have not had to do this. I'm not sure why the SIM-free should be any different.
Click to expand...

4 times i was refused unlocks from AT&T because they had no record of the imei # ever being used on their network. the minute i went into the AT&T store and gave them my sim card and asked them to put the imei on my account, my phones all became magically eligible to be unlocked.

from my failed unlock requests, i think as long as the phone is not stolen, they don't care or even keep track of your imei # after you sim card gets activated

i go to eBay
i buy a iPhone 3gs
i put in my sim
i ask them for an unlock
' were sorry, we have no record of this phone ever being used on our network '
i go to AT&T store and tell them to put the imei on my account
they give me a stupid line about you don't need to do that
i ask them to do it anyway
i put in a new unlock request
and it gets granted
 
It wasn't mentioned, so I thought I'd check:

you went to settings --> cellular --> LTE --> Voice & Data, right? IIRC, VoLTE is not enabled by default in iOS 8.
 
chrfr said:
I live and work in Boston, but I live on the outer edges of where AT&T indicates VoLTE is available. Here at home, my sim-free phone drops off LTE when I make calls. I'll try to remember to test it at work tomorrow, which is downtown and solidly inside where VoLTE is shown on the map.
Click to expand...

I have yet to see the unicorn that is VoLTE :(

----------
rritterson said:
It wasn't mentioned, so I thought I'd check:

you went to settings --> cellular --> LTE --> Voice & Data, right? IIRC, VoLTE is not enabled by default in iOS 8.
Click to expand...

I didn't manually enable it (AT&T device) and it came that way out of the box.
 
Yesterday At&t updated their map and there is VoLTE in Boston city area, VoLTE covers mainly city for now, but this is the first step and I appreciate it.


And .. the more people switch to T-mo the faster and better service I have.
 
imlynxy said:
Yesterday At&t updated their map and there is VoLTE in Boston city area, VoLTE covers mainly city for now, but this is the first step and I appreciate it.





And .. the more people switch to T-mo the faster and better service I have.
Click to expand...


Haha. TMobile service in Boston is pretty absymal

----------
lordofthereef said:
I have yet to see the unicorn that is VoLTE :(

----------





I didn't manually enable it (AT&T device) and it came that way out of the box.
Click to expand...


Here's the coverage map. Are you in range? Works great in Brookline

52cc75615f1ffe4132fde5edf068ffe9.jpg
 
Ke1ington said:
I just picked up a SIM free 6 a couple of days back and its on by default.
Click to expand...

OK. I just bought a SIM-free iPhone 6 and checked it out with both my AT&T and Verizon SIMs, both of which are VoLTE-capable in Chicago. By default, neither of them seemed to work with VoLTE, even with Voice & Data selected in the LTE settings. My guess is that there is something going on with SIM provisioning that needs to be sorted out. VoLTE works fine on both AT&T and Verizon on my "Verizon" iPhone 6. For the record, both SIMs installed the latest carrier updates.

Update: VoLTE worked on the Verizon SIM after powering off and on with the SIM installed. No such luck with the AT&T SIM. That tells me that it has something to do with SIM provisioning, since clearly VoLTE works. I will go to AT&T tomorrow and ask them what gives.
 
Last edited:
KPOM said:
OK. I just bought a SIM-free iPhone 6 and checked it out with both my AT&T and Verizon SIMs, both of which are VoLTE-capable in Chicago. By default, neither of them seemed to work with VoLTE, even with Voice & Data selected in the LTE settings. My guess is that there is something going on with SIM provisioning that needs to be sorted out. VoLTE works fine on both AT&T and Verizon on my "Verizon" iPhone 6. For the record, both SIMs installed the latest carrier updates.

Update: VoLTE worked on the Verizon SIM after powering off and on with the SIM installed. No such luck with the AT&T SIM. That tells me that it has something to do with SIM provisioning, since clearly VoLTE works. I will go to AT&T tomorrow and ask them what gives.
Click to expand...

It looks like it's not just me. I'll call AT&T again tonight and see what happens.
 
T5BRICK said:
It looks like it's not just me. I'll call AT&T again tonight and see what happens.
Click to expand...

I spoke with the AT&T Chat rep and she confirmed that AT&T has not yet fully vetted the SIM-free model with VoLTE (not sure why, but I'm not going to press the agent working at 11:00 Eastern on Friday night), so that seems to be the issue for now.
 
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