Wi-Fi Calling and VoLTE Now Available to All Giffgaff UK Customers
Mobile network provider giffgaff, which is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on O2’s platform in the United Kingdom, has announced the completion of their effort to deploy two long awaited new service features – Wi-Fi Calling and 4G Calling (VoLTE). This process originally began during the spring (here).
Just to recap. 4G Calling is another name for Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) technology, which means that any regular calls you make or receive will stay on the 4G mobile network (signal allowing), rather than dropping back to 2G. Meanwhile, Wi-Fi Calling enables consumers with a supporting Smartphone to harness their home broadband ISP or other WiFi connection to make mobile voice calls, instead of using your mobile network.
Admittedly, giffgaff’s migration process to their new platform didn’t go through without causing a few issues, some of which are still being resolved on a case-by-case basis. But otherwise, the new services are finally live, albeit with the usual caveats around device support (see below). Credits to th_442 on our forum for spotting this update.
Advertisement
Will my phone be compatible?
The following devices will be compatible with VoLTE and WiFi Calling. If your device is not listed here, it may not be able to take advantage of VoLTE or WiFi Calling features. You can continue to use SMS or Voice calls over the 2G band as you do today. Data will not be affected.
- Apple Devices:
- iPhone SE (2nd generation or later), XR, XS Max, XS, 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max, 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max, 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max, 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, , 16, 16 Pro, 16 Plus, 16 Pro Max
- You need to have iOS 17.4 software or later downloaded for these devices
- Samsung Devices:
- Galaxy A04s, A05s, A13, A14, A15, A23, A25, A34, A33, A52, A53, A54, A55, S21 Family, S21 FE, S22 Family, S23 Family, S23, S24 Family, Tab A7 Lite, Tab A8, Tab A9, Tab 28, Tab 29, Tab, S9 FE, Z Flip3 5G, Z Flip4, Z Flip5, Z Flip6, Z Fold3 5G, Z Fold4, Z Fold5, Z Fold6
- Nokia Devices:
- Nokia C12, Nokia G22
- Google Devices:
- Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a, Fold, 8/Pro onwards
- Motorola Devices
- Cancun
- Please note – we are awaiting confirmation of when the new firmware that enables VoLTE and WiFi Calling on these devices will be available.
- Sony Devices:
- Xperia 1V and 10V onwards.
- Xiaomi Devices:
- All devices with a Snapdragon chipset.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Gigabit Broadband Coverage Reaches 85 Percent of UK Premises
SMF Study Identifies Weaknesses in UK 5G Mobile Deployments »
Related consideration: In Three’s version of 3G switchoff, it seems Three is not supporting all phones which in theory are 4G voice capable. Seems Three may be mandating VoLTE?
My partner’s phone of choice (Blackberry Key 2–the last with the physical keyboard, strong preference) supports 4G data on Three but doesn’t seem to work for voice calling on Three; in theory the phone has VoLTE but doesn’t seem to work.
Three have not been very helpful (I asked their 3G migration helpline to resend the standard SIM/Service provisioning SMS to see if that helped but they could not). A case was raised but came back “Blackberry Key 2 not supported, call closed”
Whilst the phone and system chip support VoLTE, that is only part of the story, the software also needs the necessary settings for Three and I suspect these are missing, so it will not work with Three.
“the software also needs necessary settings”. Is there anything that I could change (settings or see if I could get a software update)? Could Three choose to change that via a message?
I have working SIMs for O2 and Tesco, I’ll set if the phone will work on those networks (or indeed other networks). There was a reason to choose Three some years ago (data coverage in some specific locations) but those reasons are no longer relevant so could change contract away from Three (testing some PAYG SIMs if I need to)
> Seems Three may be mandating VoLTE?
All networks in the UK require VoLTE for calls over 4G. The only difference is that EE/O2/VF have a 2G fall back while Three doesn’t.
Time for an upgrade great getting 6 years use out a phone
I’ve found VoLTE very hit and miss. A family member has a Samsung S20 FE 5G (generic direct from Samsung). VoLTE works out the box on EE, it won’t work on Vodafone until they push a network config to the phone, even with that config VoLTE only works direct on Vodafone and not with any Vodafone MVNO’s (we tried Asda & Lebara who both said they had done it, although we suspect they didn’t understand and just tried to toggle it on their side not send a config out).
I’ve also noticed on my Huawei that VoLTE/VoWifi works totally different between EE and Vodafone with it being transparent on EE with just a little symbol on the bar where as with Vodafone it has a persistant notification too, which unless you alter settings plays a notification sound everytime it comes and goes, lots of complaints on the Vodafone forum about it. It really should be a universal standard.
It’s about to become a big issue in Australia as they are about to turn 3G off but unlike us don’t have 2G (at least on some big networks) to fall back on, even now operators are selling handsets that within a month won’t be able to make calls anymore, crazy.
@MikeT it might be possible to add the necessary settings, but not easy. You would need to track down some working modem code then root and install that using Qualcomm diagnostic tools, even then Vodafone my see the device as unsupported and still not allow it even with the settings in place.
Thanks to all for their inputs, which provide clarity as to a way forward for me. It’s what commenting and community should be about.
Sort of Cunningham’s law in action!
It would seem that some early ‘4G’ phones only had a 4G data connection and relied on 2G/3G for calls.
A family member had his issue on Smarty as their area switched off 3G and they lost the ability to make or receive calls.
Many ‘4G’ phones from before 2020 seem to have this issue.
The only real solution is to buy a more modern phone. Not ideal but the phone my family member was using was 6 years old.
This will eventually happen on all networks as they switch off legacy tech.
These early ‘4G’ devices will become unreliable for phone calls well before full switch off as it will depend on your location and network as to whether you have any non-VoLTE (4G call) call coverage that they can still connect to.
Welcome to 2016 Giffgaff.
I wonder if their implementation of 4G calling and WiFi calling is dependent on software version on the phones? I saw a Hugh Jeffries video where he’s saying that in Australia,there’s talk of the networks banning phones that they didn’t supply because there’s apparently no industry standard for these features and the government over there is making it compulsory that networks give 4G calling and WiFi calling to all customers.
Also, does this mean that o2 will be closer to finally offering these features to their prepay customers? My experience with o2 pay and go is that when you run out of data they disable 4G and kick you back to 3G, something they won’t be able to do for too much longer..
I had this on already months ago..?
It was being slowly rolled out
Simple fix EE
Bit unfortunate with the iPhone support as very limiting as Basicly only supporting phones that can run ios 17 (anything after xr as listed)
Vodafone did the similar thing with iPhone but was limited to ios 15 and iPhone 8 and SE or newer I believe (was years ago)
android was a lot worse as most phone makers didn’t bake the Vodafone or O2 ims settings into the rom to get VoLTE working (if you could flash a Vodafone branded firmware and it would give you VoLTE support)
Yeah , but giffgaff like all the other networks a tight wods and won’t let you use WiFi calling outside the uk.
Whereas European networks with WiFi calling like the one I use , allow me to use WiFi calling anywhere in the world for free.
Why do uk networks have to be so mean ? Do they need the roaming fees so much ?