Wifi calling unavailable

[GrahamW1]

I've moved to an area with virtually no O2 signal and have two iPhones in the family that are supposed to be capable of doing wifi calling.  However, when I try to switch it on in the phone's wifi calling section of settings, I get the message "To allow wifi calling on this account, contact O2."

I have now contacted O2 twice and been given two different answers.  One was that because 4G is not available in my area (rural Kent), I can't do wifi calling.  4G and every other G is unavailable in my area, which is surely the point of wifi calling?  The other answer was that I needed to sign up to an upgrade - the iPhone that I was calling about is an 8 Plus, so I think this unlikely.  Both phones are pay monthly SIM only.

A friend on Vodafone managed wifi calling from our house with no problem at all.  I get the impression, although can't be sure, that the call centre staff at O2 don't know what they're talking about.  Has anyone got any suggestions?

[Cleoriff]

Hi @GrahamW1 

Wifi Calling is certainly available on your phones.

There is a video in this link which shows you how to set it up

https://www.o2.co.uk/connectivity/wifi-and-4g-calling 

Not sure what you have tried already but hopefully this might help.

Best of luck and welcome to the forum

Edited to add. I have checked another thread where wifi calling wasn't working and O2 CS had to reset the account to enable it. So Guide: How to find help & contact O2 

[MI5]

@GrahamW1 

Tou most likely don't have iData enabled on the account. 
call customer service on 202 and ask for the iData for iPhone bolt on. 
Wait 24 hours for the bolt on to become active then reboot the phone and try again. 

[GrahamW1]

Cleoriff, Thanks for your help but I've tried all of that, several times, and always ended up with the 'call O2' message.  When I call, they go into my account and there's something odd about it as they have to go off and speak to someone else.  When they come back, there are different answers as to why it won't work, none of them (so far) encouraging.

PS I like the Caracal or is it a Lynx?

[GrahamW1]

MI5, That's a different one to what I've been told by O2, I may give it a go.  Or I may decide that life is too short and it's time to try Vodafone, which seems to work!  What I don't understand is why O2 haven't suggested this, as they must be able to see it on my account when I call them. 

[MI5]

Not all customer service agents are created equal

[Cleoriff]

@GrahamW1 

Thanks, its an Iberian Lynx. (I'm a big cat fanatic)  if you notice there is also a cheetah cub in my avatar as well

Anyway I hope you get this sorted asap. As @MI5  said, not all CS reps are equal. If you manage to ring them first thing 8-8.30am, you will probably find one more willing to go that extra mile!

Good luck.

[GrahamW1 · Accepted solution]

I've now discovered, via an aborted attempt to move one of our mobiles to wifi calling with Vodafone, that neither they nor O2 yet have a system that can do both voice calls and SMS's.  Until recently, I hardly ever used SMS's as any text-type messages were catered for by Whatsapp or IOS Messages. Now my bank and one or two other organisations have started using SMS's as part of their beefed-up security procedures, so the ability to use SMS with wifi calling has become essential.  

The upshot is that both my family mobiles are now happily on EE and we're enjoying a fully-functioning wifi calling service with them.  I discovered that one mobile was locked to O2 when I thought it wasn't, so that also had to be sorted out. And we're still using temporary new EE numbers while waiting for our old O2 numbers to be ported over but we're nearly there.  It's been a bit of a journey......

Although we live in quite a populated part of rural Kent, close enough to a motorway to hear traffic noise in the distance, not a single operator is able to provide a mobile signal to our village, which is in a small valley. When we first moved here, we thought that we had solved the problem by installing a very expensive Cel-Fi mobile booster and an aerial on the roof. It provided us with O2 signals but was temperamental and packed in altogether two weeks ago.

[jonsie]

It's good that EE has sorted out the sms over wifi, just such a shame that networks as big as O2 and Voda are left far behind again.

[MI5]

I think we thought you just wanted wifi calling as we know O2 and voda don't do sms.