Today my Samsung Galaxy S9 SM-G960F phone can’t make and receive calls anymore.
I went to my phone carrier, Vodafone, and they told me that they closed their 3G network today. Then they had a look at the settings of my phone and said it was not able to work with the 4G network hence it can’t make and receive any calls. Their solution is that I must replace my phone.
I’m not keen at all to replace it, and, so so far as I know, it should be able to use the 4G network, as when I go to Network and Internet > Mobile network > Vodafone > Prefered network type > I can choose between LTE, 3G or 2G. To my understanding LTE is 4G right?
So to me it sounds like my phone should perfectly work over the 4G network of my carrier.
The question is why it doesn’t?
Actually when I enable the data, I have access to internet, but I can’t make and receive any calls.
I went to the Phone app settings > Calls > Calling accounts, there’s something called “SIP accounts” that I can activate either for SIP calls only or for all calls. At the moment it is set to SIP calls only.
Do I have to setup a SIP account first in order to make and receive calls over the 4G network of my carrier?
Sorry if it sounds a bit confused, I’m quite confused as to why this not so old phone couldn’t work with the 4G network, and I hope I’m not posting in the wrong section, sorry in advance if that’s the case, and thanks in advance for your help, I need it!
S9 definitely works with 4G/LTE. I’ve got a Tesco SIM here in the UK. Mine is set to Settings → Network → Mobile network → Preferred network type = 4G. Re-insert SIM?
Sorry to hear that. Preferred network type = LTE should work… maybe get a new SIM card from your provider, should be free of charge. If you get data ok, maybe the problem is that 4G calling is not working properly.
Are you guys confirming Samsung S9 can’t make VoLTE calls?
What if I install another phone application to replace the default “Phone” one that comes with /e/OS? Will it work?
Particularly of note is that Samsung use proprietary firmware to enable Volte. This is not built into /e/OS … but it might be doable https://github.com/phhusson/ims given quite a lot of effort.
Thanks a lot for your answers guys.
It looks like I will have to drop my S9 and buy a new phone that supports VoLTE then
So my question now becomes: what phone would you recommend given:
_ I remember I had hard times installing /e/OS on my S9 so I want a phone that is super easy to install /e/OS on
_ I plan to buy a second hand phone for financial reasons so it must not be too recent (too expensive)
_ it must support VoLTE obviously as this is the cause of my issue with my current phone that doesn’t support it
_ I don’t really care about having a 190Mpixels camera with 3 lenses or 12TB of internal storage as I’m doing basic stuff with my phone: browsing internet, GPS navigation while on car and Signal chat
All in all, I will buy a brand new phone; it seems more reliable. The Murena phones on the /e/OS website look good, but the accessories offer is too limited. I haven’t seen a screen protector for the Murena Pixel 5, for example. So, I’m considering a well-known brand. Samsung is ruled out because they don’t support /e/OS with VoLTE, so I’m looking at other brands like Huawei, Sony, LG, or similar.
Are there any models you particularly recommend? I’m thinking of a mid-range (or slightly higher) model for a reasonable price. Above all, it needs to be as easy as possible to install /e/OS; I don’t want to spend hours struggling with the installation, as was the case with my S9.|
Sony phones are usually pretty good, and Sony should be supported because they actively encourage custom ROM makers through their open devices program.
Google Pixel devices are also good but they don’t support external SD Card, which is a deal-breaker for me
Fairphone devices also deserve support because of their work on making devices more sustainable.
Oh that’s interesting thanks a lot: I didn’t know it’s possible to revert a /e/OS back to the original ROM, this is great news.
The thing is: I installed /e/OS myself on my Samsung S9 about 4 years ago, and I remember it was not super smooth as sometimes what happend on my phone was different from I saw on the tutorials, so I had to figure out what the problem was, digging into this forum to understand things and then actually dealing with it on my phone and pray for everything running as it should without leaving my phone definitively corrupted or something, it was a bit stressful, but in the end it worked.
This is what I mean by “a phone that is super easy to install /e/OS on”: I want to make sure as far as possible that I buy a phone with a little as possible hassle when installing /e/OS.
And I guess not all phones are equal: I guess some are easier than others in regards to /e/OS installation.
Thanks a lot. Actually I was thinking of buying a Sony, not really sure why, maybe because of their design or because I generally love this brand since my childhood I don’t know, anyway, good to know they’re usually pretty good.
I will start investigating tutorials on how to install /e/OS on them to help me choosing a specific model.
Can you recommend a particular Sony model that is easy to install /e/OS on?
Or is it pretty much equal for all of them?
Thanks again guys, really appreciate your help and experience here,
So I just received my Sony XPeria XZ3 H8416 and I’m starting the process of installing /e/OS on it
I updated it to the last stock Android, which is version 10.
When reading the instructions here: https://doc.e.foundation/devices/akatsuki/install
I see that I must do a WiFi call and a VoLTE call on stock Android first before actually installing /e/OS.
Can you tell me how to do that?
I know I could install an app like Signal but I don’t want to setup any Google account on this phone so I can’t access Google Playstore, and so I can’t install Signal.
What’s your advice to make sure WiFi calls and VoLTE calls will work on /e/OS?
Hi.
Sorry for the late answer.
You perform WiFi and VoLTE calls by simply calling someone from your agenda while having either: mobile data active (VoLTE) or a Wi-Fi link (VoWIFI). You don’t have to install anything… just to call someone using these settings.
The purpose is to guarantee that they work.
As for installing apps you can download the apk file from a reliable source and just install it. You don’t need a google account to install software even on the original ROM.
Good luck!
