iPhone 7/Plus WiFi calling not working at home?

[KUguardgrl13]

So my husband and I both have iPhone 7’s on T-Mobile. Our ISP is Midco. We just moved, and before the move we had WiFi calling at home no problem. Now ever since we moved, neither of our iPhones display “WiFi” at the top next to the signal strength. Mine still does at my work with same ISP. I don’t think it’s a router issue because we just got a new AC Motorola Surfboard since we upgraded to 100mbps. Restarts and updates don’t seem to fix the issue. I’m not too worried since we have a decent signal at home. It’s more just a curiosity.

 

[adamhenry]

You have normal access to the web through wifi? Have you tried disabling wifi calling and then re-enabling?

 

[KUguardgrl13]

You have normal access to the web through wifi? Have you tried disabling wifi calling and then re-enabling?

Yep, WiFi is working fine otherwise, and turning WiFi calling off and on had no effect.

 

[NoBoMac]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that iPhone has cellular as preferred call method. So, since "decent signal at home", phone is maybe not going into wifi calling mode.

A test to try: put phone into airplane mode, then turn on wifi, and see if can make a call.

Have you tried resetting network settings?

 

[KUguardgrl13]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that iPhone has cellular as preferred call method. So, since "decent signal at home", phone is maybe not going into wifi calling mode.

A test to try: put phone into airplane mode, then turn on wifi, and see if can make a call.

Have you tried resetting network settings?

We got a decent LTE signal at our old house too. I guess I’m just used to seeing “WiFi” unless I’m not connected to a WiFi signal or it’s a public network.

 

[Seamaster]

I see exactly this behaviour. Good 4G, no "WiFiCall". Toggle on Airplane Mode (and switch on wifi) and boom, "WiFiCall".

Makes sense.

 

[iGeek2014]

Could well be a change within iOS itself; over here in the U.K WiFi Calling only appears now if the signal is really weak and seems to have been the case since 11.3 from memory.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

There was a change in iOS to not default to wifi calling if you are in an area with a good cell signal. It could have been in 11.4.

 

[hobsgrg]

Could well be a change within iOS itself; over here in the U.K WiFi Calling only appears now if the signal is really weak and seems to have been the case since 11.3 from memory.

Yes on EE I used to be WiFi calling 100% of the time now it only switches to WiFi calling if I have 1 or 2 bars of signal

 

[jkozlow3]

We got a decent LTE signal at our old house too. I guess I’m just used to seeing “WiFi” unless I’m not connected to a WiFi signal or it’s a public network.

Several people have already told you how to test WiFi calling. Toggle airplane mode on and then turn on WiFi. The phone will have no choice other than to use WiFi calling if it is enabled and working correctly.

The iPhone prefers cellular to WiFi calling and only switches to WiFi calling when the cellular signal gets below a certain threshold (I typically don't see it switch to WiFi calling until it drops to 1 bar).

 

[JackieInCo]

Several people have already told you how to test WiFi calling. Toggle airplane mode on and then turn on WiFi. The phone will have no choice other than to use WiFi calling if it is enabled and working correctly.

The iPhone prefers cellular to WiFi calling and only switches to WiFi calling when the cellular signal gets below a certain threshold (I typically don't see it switch to WiFi calling until it drops to 1 bar).

Yes, I have pretty much noticed this. On AT&T while at my house, I can not make a call or text anyone unless I use WiFi calling. You can see in my screen cap that I have only one bar of signal.

 

[cynics]

Each Carrier has their own software on your iPhone delivered in form of carrier firmware. So the behavior of Wifi calling is dependent on the Carrier (T-Mobile) and how they want it to operate. Even then different devices are programmed to operate differently depending on things like their radios efficiency.

Some carriers don't have the backend for wifi calling to support all of the features their cellular network provides (things like HD Voice, MMS text, first responder features, the possibility of the handoff from wifi calling to VoLTE, the quality of that handoff etc etc). This also causes another QoS issue, battery footprint. If the carrier can't offload most of their services to wifi than neither radio can enter a lower power state which hurts the battery life. So in that case if cellular reception is good its more efficient to use cellular and allow the wifi radio to go into its low power mode.

I get significantly better standby battery life with Wifi calling off on my iPhone 6S. However if I make a lot of phone calls I get better battery life with Wifi calling on since cell signal is week.

Its just a balancing act of QoS each carrier is playing. And as a carriers wifi calling features get better their threshold for switch to it will also change.