Is there a way to do WiFi calling and totally disable the cellular radio? I tried the instructions here to disable the radio:
hxxp://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=8993781&#post8993781
and it did just disable the cellular radio (WiFi still showed up as connected), but when I tried to make a call, it said "To place a call, first turn off Airplane mode." I'm about to leave the country, and I was waiting for this update so I could use my phone without the International roaming charges. This won't work if the phone registers with their cell towers.
Turn off Airplane mode and in the Wifi Calling app under settings or such, I don't have my phone with me at this moment, there is an option to select WiFi only calling. Right now I'm over in Ireland and this seems to work well.
It seems that the cell radio has to be enabled for WiFi calling to work. So Airplane mode can't be enabled.
Can someone verify this? I am travelling overseas soon as well and would like to know if this works.
Thanks,
tehtide said:
Turn off Airplane mode and in the Wifi Calling app under settings or such, I don't have my phone with me at this moment, there is an option to select WiFi only calling. Right now I'm over in Ireland and this seems to work well.
It seems that the cell radio has to be enabled for WiFi calling to work. So Airplane mode can't be enabled.
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Do you have your sim in? Mine has an invalid sim error anyway, but I had given up on using it in europe since it seemed like the sim was a requirement.
I am not sure the wifi calling app will provide free international calling. The app requires that you register on a GSM network in order to make a wifi call. This is so it can deduct minutes. My guess is that you either must be on the TMO network or a network that has a roaming agreement with TMO. You are charged minutes for the call, but I am not sure whether you would be charged just regular minutes or roaming minutes if you use the phone on another network.
You would think this should work, all it's doing is connecting to TMO for a connection via WiFi instead of cellular towers. Why would it care where you are in the world when connecting via the net?
I think it should work, but I think the OP was looking for free calling. My guess is that you will be charged regular roaming rates, or at least regular US rates using the wifi calling app.
I'm not looking for free calling, but to be able to make wifi calls outside of the US without getting hit with roaming charges. Unless things have changed, if you turn on your phone outside the US (and you're a US customer) you get hit with a roaming charge, period. Then you have international roaming mins on top of that. With my Blackberry, I could turn the cellular radjo off, and UMA would register my SIM over wifi. I could make calls all day long and they would just count as regular mins. Is there a way to do this without switching back to my Blackberry?
cparekh said:
I think it should work, but I think the OP was looking for free calling. My guess is that you will be charged regular roaming rates, or at least regular US rates using the wifi calling app.
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Sorry,
That is what I meant. I just can't imagine you would be charged roaming since you aren't really roaming. Using your standard minutes I can understand..
You're still registering on someone elses network regardless. I'd think it'll still know you're roaming and still charge you that rate.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
No, you're not registering on someone else's cellular network. People do this with Blackberry UMA all the time. What it is, is your phone connecting to the internet, and passing the packets along to a T-Mobile server. From that point on, it's not any different than any other cell phone call. So you can be anywhere, since the internet in say, Antartica is the same internet in the US. And they don't charge for roaming. Again, Blackberry users do this all the time.
When you are overseas with t-mobile, you only get charged for calls, sms and data used (providing you have int'l roaming activated on your account) If you do not call or text and data roaming is turned off, there should be no charges unless you call.
I would assume that as long as you select wifi only in the wifi calling app, you shouldn't be hit with any roaming charges.
Something else to keep in mind is most of the hotels in europe in which I have stayed charge for internet access.
Why not call T-Mobile and ask...I bet they have an actual answer as opposed to internet speculation.
I did call and ask. That's why I came here to ask you guys if you know of a way to turn the cellular radio off completely, and make UMA calls. The Tmo rep didn't know how to do that. Everyone I was able to get a hold of could only read off the scripts. No one had any experience with the G2 and UMA (not surprising). But what they were able to tell me is, if I turn my phone on, and I have a voicemail waiting for me, it'll send a voicemail notification to my phone, and I'll get charged for international roaming. If I have a text waiting for me, and I turn my phone on, I'll get hit with an international roaming charge. This all sucks because I went ahead and got my wife a G2 now instead of waiting for Christmas, because I thought we'd be able to make WiFi calls while we were traveling. I'm pretty sure they just thought, "oh, airplane mode! people shouldn't be making calls, so we'll block calls while in airplane mode!". Only problem is that the manual radio disable I read about gets detected as airplane mode. So for my situation, UMA calling is worthless! I guess we'll be sharing the blackberry next week.
Yup. I am experiencing the same thing. When I go in and type *#*#4636#*#*, I can disable the radio. Unfortunately, the wifi calling app cannot register on the TMO network and won't enable. Therefore, though I have wifi, I cannot use the calling app. I don't see a way around this, except maybe to set it to GSM only (which is what the wifi calling app does), and then you would not get charged for data roaming, only phone roaming.
Why not just use the skype app?
You can then call out on Wifi and it costs basically nothing, their intl' rates are so cheap. It will cost literally nothing if your wife also has the skype app on her phone.
Also, don't forget tikl or any of the dozens of mobile to mobile walky talkie apps which work over wifi. Get creative!
app isn't UMA
because it has to register with the wireless network, the app isn't UMA like on a BlackBerry. I think it's a great concept, but it would be nice for everyone if it worked the way you are hoping.
just another way the company is "stickin it to ya"
it doesn't have to register on the cellular network. that would completely defeat the purpose. I can go where there's no cellular coverage at all, and make calls. i've verified that this is possible. we have a complete dead zone at work. i've turned the phone off, turned it on in that area, enabled wifi calling, and made a call. if I turn airplane mode on for a second, it refuses to allow wifi calling. also, someone who lives in a rural area and doesn't have any coverage at all would never be able to use wifi calling. And that's the whole point of it! i don't know where people get this idea that it has to register on the cellular network? does anyone actually have proof otherwise? or is it just speculation?
I do agree that this is just a way for tmo to stick it to us!!
anyways, skype's out because my wife can't forward her number to a skype number. oh and the company who developed it is calling it UMA.
Actually you can forward any number to a skype number if you have a skype-in number. I paid 30 dollars per year for a skype in number and I use skype for 99 percent of my calling on my G2 in combination with google voice. I have the hacked version of skype that works over 3G and it works great over wifi as well.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App (and voice to text)
WiFi calling on UMA is not the same as SIP calling. Please do not expect WiFi calling to work in airplane mode as your headset... as has been said before must register with a tower.. wifi calling is like a signal enhancer. If you want sim free calling you may wanna investigate SIP. the best setup so far is Google voice + gizmo + a sip client.... I don't use sipdroid since I don't know why it needs my GPS location. But there you have it.
I'm using Cyanogen Mod 7.0.3 with 2.6.32.28 kernel. Each time I make a call, the data network symbol disappears. This is not the case when I am on WiFi. It does not bother me too much, but if it is a fixable bug, I would like to know how to fix it.
If you are not on hspa you will loose your data when ur making a call.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
I often miss calls when I'm on 2G saving battery and my friends are chatting up a storm in Whatsapp groupchat for exactly this reason.
nod the problem is because you're in 1 or 2G, you said when you use wifi the problmem does not exist, that is because there are separate line between data and voice. Like other has noted above, try to stay at 3G which does have separate data and voice so you won't loose data call when you're doing voice call.
I notice that happens to me sometimes too. Always wondered why sometimes the data went away and sometimes it didnt. Thanks for some clarification!
I usually get good cellphone reception except at home but my home is in the middle of nowhere. certain spots there is a 3 bar 3g signal.and.in other spots there are.NO bars at all. Anyone know of a modification either to.the phone physically I could do? A rooted app or something like that? Or even know how to make a signal repeater or something similar .... Any solution would be VERY much appreciated!
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
There are signal boosters that you can use depending on your provider.
If you have good wifi just use internet calling. Do some looking around online.
I have 0 reception at home. Before I get home every day I just call forward all my calls to my Google voice number... which runs through pbxes.org and ru s through my cell phone. Even my outbound calls show as my cell number.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I haven't seen any reports of bluetooth or wifi tethering not working while in a phone call but that is what is happening to my nexus 4. I'm using Purity rom with a hybrid radio and have LTE enabled. Whenever I make a phone call, the data connection type letter on the signal bars in the notification drop down disappears. It's like the data connection completely stops.
If I am not tethering and make a phone call, the data connection type letter stays active and I can use the connection with various apps. It only seems to cut out when I am tethering with either bluetooth or wifi. Is this a normal problem? I was thinking I might have to apply the tmobile tethering fix:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nex...s-4-lte-lte-tethering-hotspot-t2416822/page41
to fix it but wasn't sure it was still really necessary in 4.4.4 or that this problem was even related. I thought that fix was for if you kept being redirected to the upgrade page of tmobile. My plan is truly unlimited 4g (not the 2gb of high speed data then throttling down to 2g speeds) and tethering is included. I'm not being redirected anywhere. The data connection just stops. I was thinking this was a problem with 4.4.4 since it has never happened to me on other versions.
I'm pretty sure that the way Mobile data works makes it impossible to both call and receive data at the same time.
Mine does the same thing on my sprint galaxy note 4. I am rooted using the native tether (unpaid). As soon as I receive a call, tether looses connection and stops.
I'm coming from a sprint galaxy note 2 with the same setup. I've never had this problem in the past. I was able to tether and use other apps during calls. The only difference, from what I can tell, is that my note 2 said "4g",and my note 4 says "LTE". Help please....
Sent from my SM-N910P using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I spent a hour with support on enabling Wi-Fi calling. I set it all up but all I get is a star next to my Wi-Fi signal and no ATT-wifi calling icon in the left top notification area. Any ideas?
At&t is going to call me back Wednesday as I said i would troubleshoot it further. I have reset network settings, resetup Wi-Fi calling and reset my phone
k5mitch said:
I spent a hour with support on enabling Wi-Fi calling. I set it all up but all I get is a star next to my Wi-Fi signal and no ATT-wifi calling icon in the left top notification area. Any ideas?
At&t is going to call me back Wednesday as I said i would troubleshoot it further. I have reset network settings, resetup Wi-Fi calling and reset my phone
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At&t support WiFi calling only if your signal is lower then two bars. If you have plus ( star) sign next to your WiFi that mean your WiFi calling is working. To check this turn airplane mode and connect to WiFi and try to make call. There is no WiFi icon on left side at all.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N930A using XDA Premium HD app
I will give it a try. I Usually only have one bar. I took my note 5 back because it wouldn't work with my microcell I fought with them for 5 months about it I finally took it back .
norbarb said:
At&t support WiFi calling only if your signal is lower then two bars. If you have plus ( star) sign next to your WiFi that mean your WiFi calling is working. To check this turn airplane mode and connect to WiFi and try to make call. There is no WiFi icon on left side at all.
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Airplane mode disables all radios. That's not possible
Yes it IS possible, after setting airplane mode to ON, go up and turn the WiFi back to ON.
heathmcabee said:
Airplane mode disables all radios. That's not possible
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Why don't you try first then tell me what is possible and what not.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N930A using XDA Premium HD app
norbarb said:
Why don't you try first then tell me what is possible and what not.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N930A using XDA Premium HD app
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I didn't personally have any issues... although it would not activate for the first few hours I had my phone. But I had never used wifi calling before, and why i didn't think of your method of testing it, I don't know. But thanks for the advice.
If I keep the WiFi calling enabled, will it reduce my battery life? By keeping a constant connection or something? I guess I have more than 2 bars for most part of my home.
amith007 said:
If I keep the WiFi calling enabled, will it reduce my battery life? By keeping a constant connection or something? I guess I have more than 2 bars for most part of my home.
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I can't imagine that it would. Unless you normally turn WiFi off when your not using it. WiFi calling will automatically toggle wifi on and search for a signal. If you just leave wifi on all the time, I can't imagine the wifi calling portion changing you battery life any.
norbarb said:
To check this turn airplane mode and connect to WiFi and try to make call. There is no WiFi icon on left side at all.
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Not just for testing. That method (turn on Airplane Mode, then re-enable WiFi) can be used to force WiFi-calling (instead of using your voice minutes) even if you have a strong connection to your mobile network.
I was having this same issue and by switching to the Sim card that came in the box rather than my old one fixed the problem for me.
Gary02468 said:
Not just for testing. That method (turn on Airplane Mode, then re-enable WiFi) can be used to force WiFi-calling (instead of using your voice minutes) even if you have a strong connection to your mobile network.
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AT&T still does "voice minutes"? Lol.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N930A using XDA-Developers mobile app