Why doesn't Wifi calling include SMS and MMS messages?

[Loony22]

exactly that, wifi is great but i have such low signal indoors that sometimes cant even send a text message.

[Loony22]

sorry but tugo sucks, and i am strapped to NO2 for another year and a half. i could go vodafone and use our sure signal and all would be well, but I hate vodafone with a passion. however if things continue to not happen at O2 i might just have to get the ****** out of this £30 a month joke. even Giff gaff sucks out here too unless i use my nokia 105.

[MI5]

Have you tried switching to 2g only for indoor coverage?

[PhoneChanger]

@Loony22 are you on a refresh tariff? as you could always pay off your handset plan and then change networks without any additional costs.

If you joined direct with O2 you should be on this type of tariff, if however you joined with a 3rd party like Carphone then your stuck till your contract runs out

[Anonymous]

I'll put it very simply: I have lost 2 friends from the O2 network to other carriers over this issue as we all have ZERO O2 signal in the vast majority of our houses. WiFiCalling has been the only reason to stay with O2 except we cannot text. O2 has been aware of this issue for months and have done nothing to fix it.

If O2 do not resolve this issue by Christmas I will cancel my O2 contract and transfer to another provider who can fulfil the basic task of covering gaps in their own network. I will actively encourage others on social media to do the same.

[MI5]

There will be a long list of people leaving behind you.

[adamtemp64]

@Chris_K will Wi-Fi calling now have sms enabled following the demise of tugo

[jonsie]

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@MI5 wrote:
There will be a long list of people leaving behind you.

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I'm on that list. Wifi calling is of no use whatsoever to me. 

[MI5]

Me neither 😞

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

I was blindsided by the announced demise of TuGo at the end of November and although TuGo wasn't perfect it had the extra advantage of running on Windows devices too. So if I was at my desk I didn't even have to pick up my mobile and hold it to me ear to take a call. I could just answer it using the built in mic and speakers of my laptop.

I totally relied on it as I'm out of signal 95% of the time so reluctantly I went yesterday to upgrade to a Samsung Note 8 (I know this is an Apple section of the forums but the WiFi calling issue is common to both Apple and Android, plus this is where a search for others with this issue brought me).

O2 Customer Support acknowledged the issue for me in them closing TuGo and that it was their timing not mine that required me to upgrade before the end of my device plan. But they still wouldn't cancel the last six months of payments which considering I'd be upgrading to a more expensive phone and airtime plan as well as purchasing new accessories struck me as very unhelpful. I decided if they weren't interested in keeping me as a customer I'd take whatever miserly deal they offered to cancel the contract and go elsewhere.

The manager of the store I was did as good a deal as he could within his authority limits in trading in my old phone and persuaded me it was worth staying. Although I was very pleased with my decision on the phone I then got the kicker the next day of finding out O2, unlike other carriers, aren't doing SMS and MMS over WiFi Calling. This is absolutely essential. What fool in O2 thought, "Well, they can get calls - why worry about texts?". I never asked the question in store because it seemed so unlikely that it would only handle calls. Not even the staff in store say they were aware that WiFi calling didn't include texts.

I'm giving them 7 days to find out from Regional if there are imminent plans to turn on texts (it surely can't be that hard as otehr carriers are doing it already). If not, then they are going to get the phone back within the 14 day cancellation period and I'm going to EE. I should have carried out that threat straight away when they didn't think it worth cancelling the £108 remaining phone contract to keep me.