I am afraid I know the answer to my question, but I wanted to ask to make sure (and sorry for opening a thread for this, but I could not find one on the topic that is still active).
I have a Samsung Galaxy S10 and recently the 2G/3G band is not available for me any more. Like other people described everything works fine besides calling and receiving calls. I am aware that this is due to the voLTE option not being available. I read that there are a couple of experimental attempts to solve that problem, but I am a normal user and cannot build my own roms.
So my questions are:
is there currently a dummy user friendly option to try and get voLTE working? I also have a Galaxy S9 around I could test it on first (compatibility with carrier etc), but I could not find a tutorial that was dummy enough for me to follow so far.
Is there any other workaround to make calls work? I saw that call over wifi would be an option, but does that also not work? For the same reason?
Is there an app or something that can do a similar thing? Skype could do normal phone calls as far as I remember, does anyone know of something like that?
I do not need calls a lot but they are essential. So if I cannot fix this I will need to buy a new phone…
I have two Samsung, unused for phone calls. Fine for playing music or many other jobs.
If your carrier / Region insists on Volte one might use experimental methods to advance the search for avoidance of Samsung proprietary Volte methods, but this excludes essential calls.
In UK my carrier could fallback to 2G (except when transmission fails).
You should state which country you live in, and whether any of the networks in your locale still have 2G or 3G as a fallback for calling, and if you could switch to one of them.
As for Skype replacement services, depending on your location:
JMP.chat (U.S. and Canada numbers only) - An XMPP/Jabber service that is a complete calls+SMS+MMS replacement, but doesn’t supply the data/internet connection. (So pair JMP with some/any SIM or Wifi. EDIT: You need this in order for calls/SMS/MMS to work, as they require internet for transit.)
Mytello.com (U.S. numbers only, I believe)
satellite.me (German numbers only) - Described as a second-number service; apparently no SMS functionality yet. (Using this service would likely mean a Satellite Me number for calls, but your present number for texts, which might be confusing.)
The usual well-known messaging apps, although these will require both parties in the conversation to be using the same application.
You can always reinstall Samsung Android, which, if I’m not mistaken, will restore VoLTE functionality… assuming your network(s) approve the S10 for VoLTE service. If you go that route, you can take steps to reduce the privacy invasion, but probably not be totally free of it.
In your situation, it might be simpler to sell or give away your Samsung, with or without a return to stock Android, and buy a less restrictive phone, such as a Sony, that has an /e/OS build available.
(“call over wifi” in terms of VoWifi is the same software stack as VoLTE: IMS - not an option). But regular VoIP / SIP over Wifi sure works.
Judging from your username, satellite.me is an option for you (as cited by Taurus).
In my experience it is a good enough replacement and you can port over your current number in <24h. As written, you’ll lose SMS. Bank stopped using them for 2FA, but there are odd cases when you’d reach for them (Signal can do Voice verification though btw, no need for sms).
Then there’s RCS making it popular again to message with Carriers (nooooo) - unavailable on customroms as of now though anyway.
I live in Sweden; they shut off 2G and 3G end of the year nationwide.
Yes network is fine with VoLTE. I thought about the Samsung ROM, but the last update has been 2024 and that does not seem ideal.
Ok thanks I will look into it.
Yes I did not expect that I missed any brilliant option out there and that it is all a compromise. Most probably I am gonna buy a Fairphone 6. Very annoying though because my S10 works perfectly fine….
ah ok, you’d need a residential address in Germany for satellite.me.
VoIP - outside the carriers - on phones can be good IF both the app and your SIP providers server can do “SIP Push Notifications” (rfc8599), wakes up the phone for the incoming call. Most users report good results on push notifications with the paid App (onetime fee) Acrobits Groundwire. Checkout this thread where voip.ms (a sip provider) users report on its use and their other experiences. Linphone can do rfc8599 too. The issue I guess is you needing to pay for a sip account on top of a data plan and usage fees.
Carriers have advantages when the coverage is bad and the cell tower is aware you have an ongoing call and selectively improves your signal.
Hello everyone, I am new to the forum, also a Samsung owner (S20 Ultra 5G / Z3s) which I successfully rooted to e/OS.
The system works great (Can’t thank enough all the people involved in the making of those builds). Appart from phone calls, it’s amazingly fluid and I did not notice any major bug whereas the one I use seems not to be an official build.
Now with shutdown of 2G/3G technologies in the next few years, and the absence of possibility to use VoLTE phonecalls on Samsung devices, I would like to think a solution might be found in the future.
From a quick research, I found out two-three projects that did unlock it. I have no idea, not being a dev, how those could help in order to implement this to e/OS. Nevertheless :
The idea is to repack the whole OS with a fix. I am not sure if this could be applied to an eOS build, could anyone bring light on how is this supposed to unlock the proprietary Samsung VoLTE ?
Maybe someone with a dev background can give us some feedback on how those work, and why it is still not possible to implement such a patch at the moment ?
option 1+2 are still OneUI based, the jameskdev effort is what would work for LineageOS derivates if adapted per device. phh GSIs do have ims compat apks, but from what I read up to now it doesnt help Samsung owners either (but Mediateks)
I’d agree to slop if it’s verified and works, but this has no chance to even get there. The linked repo will do some json settings massaging, not at all what keeps ims service from working on Samsungs. It’s not the settings that are the issue on AOSP. It will only help OneUI users (the readme would say so even). I’ll mark this as spam
If you want an LLM to help you, work from the jameskdev repo and understand what the smali patching actually does
After having my “cold shower” last week when suddenly my phone couldnt call anymore and reading so much, I think me and all other Samsung custom rom users are in deep trouble now. I have to finish my use of eos now. it is really a pity. And I dont see eos saying anything to this topic, as if it is a small defect, not bothering too much. But I would say the majority of users are using eos on samsung for several reasons, the whole idea of eos is now no more working. even bying a murena phone I see as a big risk because from what I read, the carrier/provider decides, which pohones are accepted and which not. With a custom rom like eos in combination with an unpopular phone, the chance is there that you still cannot call and your provider will just dont understand you. really a big drama in my eyes..
it really is only Samsung. Any Qualcomm SoC past 2020 won’t cause an issue. Murena did do some outreach to get VoLTE freed on Samsungs (the phh-ims work), but it didnt seem to have left the proof of concept stage.
Doing the smali patch method per device is imo the most promising, but involved route.
Also someone packaged the ims work of phh recently to be more easily integrated at amikhasenko/ims - the status is working outgoing calls, incoming drop after accept. It’s geared to the A21s though with a small binary patch (as is the jameskdev work) and LLM help on the reverse engineering.
In general, following the latest entries in this xda thread keeps people updated.
April 2026 Swisscom 3G shutdown then phone calls were unavailable on both devices :
A) Galaxy A3 2016 (SM-A310F) Exynos (a3xeltexx) 2.2-r-20240721-UNOFFICIAL-a3xelte
B) Galaxy A40 (SM-A405FN/DS) exynos7904 e-3.1.1-a14-20250913-UNOFFICIAL-a40
I keep A) under wifi mainly for MeteoSwiss and HomeAssistant without SIM.
For B) with SIM I was forced to back to stock with Odin4 - latest firmware from Frija. I did debloat as far as I could, but I hope in future Samsung voLTE solution on /e/OS.