Wi-Fi Calling with BYOD? Rural Coverage Poor!

[Bleser]

I took my first trip to a "rural" part of the country this past weekend and was very disappointed with T-Mobile's coverage. There were many areas where I simply had no service whereas my old Sprint service would roam to Verizon and I'd always have at least a bar or two so I could place a call. Now I feel like I'm back in 1998 with zero coverage in these types of areas.

I wouldn't mind this so much if I had wi-fi calling capability so I'd at least have coverage at my destination. However, I chose to bring my own device to T-Mobile and my limited research has basically stated I'm out of luck on using T-Mobile's wi-fi calling feature because of this. Is this true? Does anyone know if this is changing in the future? It's nice to be able to bring your own device but to then have it limited for no apparent reason is frustrating. I wonder if they simply don't want to have to support it?

A final question - how am I sure I have voice roaming enabled on WP 8.1? I see the option to data roam but don't see a screen for voice roaming. Is there maybe some additional SIM setup I'm missing?

 

[xandros9]

it's true, you're out of luck on this front sadly.

is it going to change in the future? probably not, and if it does, it'll probably come as a surprise.

 

[venious]

What would financially motivate them to develop software for your phone. That is the question you need you ask yourself. Why not by a 75.00 Lumia 635 for trips like these?

 

[Bleser]

Yeah, I've read some more and basically buying a secondary phone or SIM card seems to be the primary solutions. It's not the end of the world but since I know T-Mobile has 'an app for that' but simply won't let me install it since it isn't a T-Mobile OS build is frustrating. Oh well, not a big deal overall as I'm rarely in rural regions.

 

[jmshub]

I think WiFi calling support may improve, as that was a bullet point of the Apple announcement when they released the iPhone 6 phones.

 

[oryan_dunn]

I wonder if you'd be able to install the T-Mo WiFi calling app on a non-TMo branded phone?
Wi-Fi Calling | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)
At this point, it should be all software, and with the other carriers going VoLTE, IMS calling is something that MS should have built into the base WP.

 

[RumoredNow]

I wonder if you'd be able to install the T-Mo WiFi calling app on a non-TMo branded phone?
Wi-Fi Calling | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)
At this point, it should be all software, and with the other carriers going VoLTE, IMS calling is something that MS should have built into the base WP.

Nope... It is still locked out for non-branded (T-Mo) phones.

It does not make sense, but there it is and there it stays.

And it isn't just this one App. Carriers do occasionally come up with Apps that are useful and everybody wants, and they make them exclusive to their firmware. Like SoftCard on Vzw and AT&T...

 

[metalchick719]

Only non-T-Mobile phone that gets Wi-Fi Calling is the iPhone 5S, 5C, 6 and 6 Plus with iOS 8.

 

[Ordeith]

Have you considered another carrier? It there a particular reason you are stuck with T-Mobile?
There are less expensive options with better coverage if you are willing or able to consider them.