Nokia Lumia 521 and WiFi calling

kmoc777

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I have a persistent issue with WiFi calling. It works, but the phone won't automatically enable WiFi calling when I enter a known WiFi area. It will find and connect to the WiFi, but I have to go into Airplane mode, toggle that on then off to get WiFi calling to enable. Sometimes the WiFi calling tile will be red, most times it is blue. And yes, I have my 911 address set up. And yes, I have it set to "WiFi preferred". This is consistent with my wife's, my daughter's and my 521. I would expect the phone to automatically enable WiFi calling once it finds a known WiFi signal. Anyone else having similar issues or does anyone's phone just automatically enable WiFi calling without any issue? Thanks.
 

palandri

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I am confused here. I thought all T-Mobile plans now have unlimited talk/text? Are you using WiFi due to no phone signal?
 

Oakdale Dude

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Never tried it. I usually turn my WiFi off when I leave my dungeon and my reception gets strong, then I turn it back on when I'm home.

I'll put it to the test when I'm home later and see if I get the same results.
 

mogelijk

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There is the $30 prepaid plan on T-Mobile that only comes with 100 minutes talk. Additionally, there are some pay as you go plans.
 

kmoc777

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Wow. Talk about missing the point. The point of this thread is not about saving minutes on my plan. I have unlimited minutes. It is about how my phone connects or more importantly, how it does not connect to WiFi calling, which is kinda important if one has no cell signal.
 

Oakdale Dude

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I went ahead and tried it myself as I said I would.

I connected to my WiFi here at home and enabled WiFi calling. Both connected as usual.

Leaving both switches on, I walked down to my nearest stop n rob for a cold drink. The store is a good 4-5 blocks away. Obviously well out of my WiFi signal's range.

When I got home, I watched both the wifi & wifi calling indicators. It took about 2-3 minutes but both the wifi and wifi calling reconnected automatically without me having to do anything.
 

calfee20

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How fast is your regular wifi. When you go to a new area and it doesn't connect have you ever checked how fast wifi is? Maybe you are connected but the signal is not good enough or there is something wrong with your wifi antenna?
 

kmoc777

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Thanks for that info! I talked to T Mobile yesterday and was told that the Nokia phones wont automatically enable WiFi calling. ?. I wasn't going to argue with the T Moblie tech person, but I thought that sounded like inaccurate information. I'm going to have to continue to pursue this. Thanks again.
 

kmoc777

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That is a good point and a good question. My wifi at home averages between 10-12 mbs. Once I am connected and get WiFi calling enabled, there are generally no issues. At work, the WiFi is even faster, so I don't think it is an issue, but can't say that with 100% certainty.
 

calfee20

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When I first got my phone it acted like yours. I had to go to T-Mobile for support and they fixed it by setting up the 911 location. I know you said yours was taken care of but I wanted to mention that the couple of times I have called support the first person is an ***** and they will not hand me off to a second level tech. Even though I was insisting I wanted to talk to someone else they would not transfer my call. I think they have to spend X amount of time before they transfer you to someone else. The point I trying to make is that tech you didn't want to argue with is one of the idiots that you need to plow through to get to someone who can help. Hanging up and calling back just gets you to the first line of techs and you are back to square one.

I had this exact same scenario installing Win8. The difference with Microsoft was that the first tech was very helpful made sensible suggestions and did not make stupid statements like "Nokia phones wont automatically enable Wi-Fi calling".

The second tech ran a test on my Wi-Fi connection and I remember you don't need much speed for Wi-Fi calling to work 1.something was enough. Maybe you should call and get to a "higher authority"...............calfee
 

kmoc777

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So I took a clue from Oakdale Dude's comment of his phone taking 2-3 minutes to re-enable WiFi calling and conducted a few experiments. I turned the WiFi and WiFi calling off, turned my phone off and restarted my phone outside where I knew it would get T Mobile signal. After a few minutes I went back inside my house, turned WiFi on, let it find and connect to my WiFi network and then turned WiFi calling on and waited. The WiFi calling tile started blue, went red (REG 99 error) went blue again, went red again (same error code), went blue again, then at about the 4:00 minute mark, it went green and enabled WiFi calling. I had never waited that long, so I had never seen it connect without going through the "airplane" mode routine. Then, I tried to the same experiment with my wife's phone. It enabled WiFi calling in appox. 17 sec! She has never been able to get WiFi calling without toggling "airplane" mode on and off. And she was much more patient than me. Strange how it is all of sudden working. I had a conversation with T Mobile yesterday and today the WiFi calling enables automatically. I'm generally not a conspiracy theorist, but today during these experiments I also noticed I have cell signal in my house, not strong, but since we had no cell signal inside, much better than it has been since I switched to T Mobile.
Anyway, to wrap things up, I left my WiFi signal today for an hour or so, came back and although it took close to 5 minutes, the WiFi calling "automatically" enabled. My wife's phone took about the same amount of time also. I always assumed that the enabling of the WiFi calling would be much quicker than 4-5 minutes. I guess this is a lesson learned. Thanks for all the help.
 

calfee20

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I love these little experiments. I think 4-5 minutes is too long. I did what you did except I didn't go outside. I had 2 bars on T-Mobile. Wi-Fi off and Wi-Fi calling off then after a minute or so I turned on Wi-Fi. It connected in about 20 seconds. During all this my Wi-Fi calling square was blue. Then turned on Wi-Fi calling. The Wi-Fi calling tile turned red then blue then green in 1 minute 30 seconds.

I repeated the above except I turned on the Wi-Fi calling first then I turned on the Wi-Fi. I was connected in 15 seconds. I tried it again and had a total fail. 2 or 3 minutes and no connection. tried again connected in 2 minutes. Then I noticed my T-Mobile connection was going in and out. Maybe the cell signal and the internet has to do some kind of a hand shake to have a faster connection. No cell signal and a longer hookup time......maybe.

Your results may vary...................calfee
 

Oakdale Dude

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The delay is definately a WiFi Calling thing, cause I know that if I just have the WiFi switched on and I get out of range...when I get back in range, the WiFi connects almost instantly.

It takes considerably longer to reconnect to both the wifi & wifi calling together
 

kmoc777

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So, the only consistentcy is inconsistency.
Our phones also connect instantly to our home (and other) WiFi networks. Enabling WiFi calling is another story. It took over 5 minutes when I got to work today and my wife reports that it took her phone approx. 20 mins when she got back home this morning. Again, connection to WiFi network: instantaneous; enabling WiFi calling: Anybody's guess.
Maybe Nokia and Microsoft can smooth this out in the future.
Thanks again
 

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