WiFi Calling not Working on o2 in UK

fourteenburn

Recently switched to GrapheneOS and o2 swapped my eSim from my old phone to a physical sim and I'm now using that in my Pixel Pro 9. When this first switched over I could see Wi-Fi calling working (it shows in the top bar in Android when I expand settings).

However, this has since stopped working and I can't figure out why. I read that o2 only support certain software so I'm wondering if they detected that I wasn't using stock Android and disabled it.

I've dialled *#*#4636#*#* after some searching as it shows a greyed out checkbox for Wi-Fi calling which is disabled.

There also isn't any option in Android settings to enable or disable Wi-Fi calling.

I'm desperate for this to work as my home office is in the basement and I have no signal.

Anyone else run into similar issues, know a fix, or know a different provider that would support this i.e., EE?

Lilac6044

fourteenburn hi, if you go to network and internet, sims, o2, should be wifi calling halfway down. Is it present?

fourteenburn

Lilac6044

There's no option anywhere, sadly. When I first switched it just worked without doing anything but it since seems to have disabled itself.

Lilac6044

fourteenburn Hi if you go to the dialer app, click the three vertical dots top right, calling accounts, click o2, is wifi-calling there or not?

If it isn't on either of this places then o2 need to enable it again for your account. I used to be on o2, and I just called 202 (assume it is still the same), and an operator had it enabled on my account. Hope this helps.

fourteenburn

Lilac6044 No W-Fi calling there either.

Thank you, this is helpful. I tried o2 and they gave me some nonsense about Wifi providers. It was live chat so I'll give them a call and see if they can sort it.

r134a

Are u using a vpn on router level by any chance? My providor doesn't work with any ip that isn't located in my own country in that case.

fourteenburn

r134a

It's on my list to investigate, but I'm not currently doing this, no. I use VPNs on my devices (including the phone) however, so I may do some more testing with and without VPN turned on. Thanks for the suggestion.

r134a

fourteenburn Then this is likely not the issue, WiFi-calling 'bypasses' your on-device vpn.

fourteenburn

r134a

Interestingly, I disabled the VPN on my phone and restarted and Wi-Fi calling is back so I suspect you're on to something here. I was using an always-on VPN and I've now disabled that and it appears to be behaving.
I need to test further but this looks promising. I will report back. Thanks!

P3yot3

You are not alone & it's not a problem with your phone. It's 100% O2's fault.
I've never been able to get wifi calling to work with O2 in UK since moving to them 2 years ago, despite multiple complaints, tickets, support requests, etc, etc. Their support are absolutely clueless anyways, not to mention their support bots that claim to be human. Strangely, when outside of the UK, the wifi calling works fine, both with or without my vpn being in use.
I would have sacked them immediately the problem was noticed, but they are the only UK provider that still has free global roaming & as I travel frequently it's worth my while staying with them. For now.

r134a

fourteenburn That's weird, i know for a fact that WiFi-calling 'bypasses' the on device vpn and uses a separate IPSec tunnel. So from that perspective this doesn't make much sense.

However perhaps it's possible that the initial check to check if WiFi calling is possible with the carrier is just 'regular traffic'. Though this is just speculation and i don't know for a fact this is the case, but it might seem plausible after your observation.