Rumor has it that T-Mobile will soon announce that 3G voice services will be discontinued in the U.S. early next year. VoLTE (or VoWiFi) will be the only way to make voice calls after that.
Having recently discovered /e/ and acquired a nice Nexus 6P (now that I can have a Google-free and Apple-free smartphone), I’m wondering what the prospects are for VoLTE support on the Nexus 6P.
Frankly, I think T-Mobile should have to file an Environmental Impact Statement (that’s a U.S. thing) related to this action because of all of the perfectly functional phones that will have to be discarded and replaced.
The /e/OS ROM can normally support VoLTE and VoWIFI, but the actual VoLTE and VoWIFI operation will depend on a number of parameters:
The phone must be compatible and must integrate the necessary software which is often proprietary.
The OS must support the functionality.
The carrier must support VoLTE and VoWIFI.
The carrier must whitelist VoLTE/VoWIFI usage on the actual phone (this is done via the device IMEI).
On the Galaxy models, we are stuck at the software level. That is to say, we don’t have access to the proprietary software required to activate either.
We managed to activate both VoLTE and VoWifi on OnePlus models but our phones were not whitelisted on the networks we had available for testing.
But the Fairphone 3 for instance has VoLTE since there is a partnership between the e Foundation and Fairphone.
Thanks for the quick response. But that just repeats information I’ve already seen (I did a search before posting my question). I was hoping for a more specific answer about my Nexus 6P. As best as I can tell, it does not seem to support VoLTE when running /e/, although information I’ve found in a wider web search suggests VoLTE is supported by the stock ROM.
So a few more specific questions:
What is the best way to know whether a voice call is using VoLTE? I’ve been using two things as evidence: the “LTE” flag in the signal strength indicator (“bars”) goes away during a voice call; and I can’t use data during a voice call.
If /e/ does not currently support VoLTE on the Nexus 6P, what is the obstacle?
Does /e/ support VoLTE on any phones other than Fairphone 3 (which, last I knew, was not available to me in the U.S.)? If so, which phones?
If you can’t use data at the same time when you’re placing a call with LTE available, this means that your phone isn’t using VoLTE. VoLTE would allow you to place a LTE call and have access to data at the same time.
When you place a call under VoLTE, you will see a label “HD” when you place a call like in the picture below (next to the elapsed call time)
When VoLTE is active on your phone, you will also see the option ‘Enhanced 4G LTE Mode’ in ‘Advanced Settings’ under Network and Internet in your settings.
My phone shows “Enhanced 4G LTE Mode” active in the Network and Internet Advanced Settings, but it’s not acting like it’s using VoLTE (no data during the call).
I live in an area with weak signal, could that be the problem? I get LTE data, although it is sometimes intermittent. I’m working at home and don’t get out much these days because covid. I’ll try making a call sometime when I’m out somewhere with a better signal, and see if I get the “HD” indication. Maybe I’ll call T-Mobile and ask them whether my account has VoLTE enabled.
Can you tell me anything more about the “proprietary libraries that enable VoLTE”? Is this something I could extract from the stock ROM and add to /e/? That would be a pain to have to do for every OTA update.
I really don’t want to give up on /e/, but I would like to have a working phone when T-Mobile switches to VoLTE-only.
type this code with no spaces: * # * # 4 6 3 6 # * # *, it will open a test menu.
In the menu that opens, select ‘Phone information’
You will see in the bottom of the screen you will see several toggles:
– Mobile Radio Power
– VoLTE Provisionned
– Video Calling,
– etc…
if VoLTE Provisioned is turned on, this means that both the OS and the device are reporting they can operate VoLTE. In that case, the missing piece is your provider authorizing your calls to be placed over VoLTE for your line.
Ahh, magic incantation! (4636 spells INFO ) Where do you find this stuff out, is it just folklore or is it documented somewhere?
My phone is showing “VoLTE Provisioned” turned on. I will: 1) Try calling from a location with better signal; 2) Call T-Mobile, either to ask them to authorize VoLTE on this line or to complain about the signal at my house.
Thank you very much!
Now I just need to find another phone that is supported by /e/ with VoLTE enabled to replace my old Motorola Razr V3 that will become useless next year…
I finally took my Nexus 6P into a T-Mobile store today. The young man who helped me poked at the phone for a while, did a little web searching (with Google, no doubt), and told me “Huawei would need to release new firmware for it to support VoLTE”.
He said that there’s nothing T-Mobile needs to do to enable VoLTE for this phone, and that the fact that the SIM was previously in another phone doesn’t matter.
He didn’t comment about it running /e/, even though he turned it over and saw the sticker on the back.
) Where do you find this stuff out, is it just folklore or is it documented somewhere?