Question

4G Calling (VoLTE) on Honor Play


I am trying to move to iD Mobile as my phone - Honor Play - is supposed to work with 4G Calling (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi Calling.

I can get Wi-Fi calling to work although it is disappointing that it only works if there is weak mobile signal rather than whenever suitable Wi-Fi is available. Is it possible for calls to go over Wi-Fi rather than the mobile network whenever a suitable Wi-Fi network is available or is how it is working just how it works?

The bigger issue is 4G Calling (i.e. VoLTE). I have found that the phone always drops to 3G when making a call. Also no VoLTE icon appears. Both of these would indicate that VoLTE is not being used. I called 7777 but the person I spoke to said that was correct i.e. they seem to have had no idea what VoLTE is or how it works.

I tried dialing #*#*4636#*#* as I saw in another post and get an error message "connection problem or invalid MMI code" which suggests something maybe wrong...

How can I get in touch with someone to see why VoLTE doesn't seem to be working and try to get it working?

15 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +10
Hello @JamesID,

From what I'm aware, WiFi Calling only kicks in when the connection to the network is weak & the WiFi is stronger than 2MBs.
(See here: https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/wifi-calling)

For 4G Calling, I would expect this to work when the 4G signal is strong enough though, there's no mention of a minimum signal strength on our page: https://www.idmobile.co.uk/4g-calling

Have you tried going into your network settings and switching to 4G only to see if this works?

Mohammed
Thanks, @Mohammed.

The only preferred network modes are as follows so I can't 'force' 4G only'.

4G/3G/2G auto (this is the one that is selected as it is the only one with 4G in it)
3G/2G auto
3G only

The mobile signal is middling to good - between 3 and 5 out of 5 bars on the signal strength guide on the status bar. If there is no mention of a minimum signal strength on the iD mobile website 4G Calling page then assumedly all that is required is a 4G signal,,,
Userlevel 7
Badge +7
Hi @JamesID ,

Please could you confirm the make and model of the handset that you are using?

Once you confirm this we may be able to advise some things to try to get this sorted.

Kash
Hi @Kash,

The phone is an Honor Play COR-L29.
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
Hello James,

The COR-L29 only supports the following bands:

LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800), 38(2600), 40(2300), 41(2500) as these are this is the Global model.

Can you confirm for me your full postcode, I'll see if we're able to find which masts are in your area and advise further.

Mohammed
I am not sure what you mean by 'only' supports those frequencies as those are all of the frequencies used in the UK and more, which I suppose is why it is a 'global' model.

This is a model officially sold in the UK by Huawei and works with all UK frequencies as you can see by comparing the list of frequencies used in the UK as listed below.

800MHz (Band 20), 900MHz (Band 😎, 1800MHz (Band 3), 2100MHz (Band 1), 2600MHz (Band 7)

As a double-check, I see that Three use 800/1800MHz for 4G and 2100 for 3G which are covered by the phone specifications as well.

I will send my postcode by private message.
@Mohammed & @Kash

Any news on this? It is not easy not having my usual mobile number while I wait to see if VoLTE can be got working and I can stay with iD mobile or not...

Thanks.
Userlevel 7
Badge +7
Hi @JamesID,

Thanks for getting back to us. Sorry for the wait with this.

Unfortunately Mohammed isn't able to check his Private Messages right not so please would it be possible to send your postcode to me in a private message.

I Look forward to your message so we can look into it for you.

Kash
@Kash, private message sent as requested.
Userlevel 7
Badge +7
Hi @JamesID,

Thanks for sending us the message.

I can see that the masts in your area use the following bands VoLTE (800) , 3G (2100) and VoLTE (1800).

Unfortunately the coverage indoors is marginal and limited outdoors.

I hope this helps.

Kash
Userlevel 2
Hi similar issue here. I have an UMIDIGI (Chinese) smartphone which was on EE. It's unlocked and VoLTE worked flawlessly on EE.

Now I am with ID, VoLTE only works intermittently. This is weird since ID uses EE's network. Is there any reason why VoLTE shouldn't work on ID if it did with EE? I'm wondering if ID is restricted to only use some of EE's bands etc.

Thanks in advance.
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
Hello @Kurtph1969,

iD Mobile uses Three UK's network for coverage not EE's.

Do you mean a specific mast owned by EE in the area is used by all networks?

Mohammed
Userlevel 2
Thanks Mohammed,

No you're right. My fault. I don't know where I got the information about ID using EE. This makes sense now as I understand ID is using the Three network. I guess there's limited VoLTE in my area.
Userlevel 2
One thing I have noticed, VoLTE coverage does seem very sporadic on ID. E.g. At my postcode, FY3 0 shows excellent 4G calling on the ID coverage checker, but at my current location I don't have it (upstairs, near window, full signal strength). I know it's enabled on my phone because VoLTE kicks in when I visit (Blackpool) town centre. I wondered if 3 are only broadcasting VoLTE on one band? (as opposed to EE who seem to have have seemless VoLTE on 4G). My phone is currently showing Band 3 (1800 MHz).
Userlevel 2
I've figured it out!

It seems that iD (Three) only uses Band 20 (800 MHz)* for VoLTE. My phone is prioritising Band 3 because there's a stronger 4G signal on that band but, unfortunately, no VoLTE. Can anyone confirm this please? Or maybe my phone doesn't support VoLTE on Band 3 😀


*see: www.androidcentral.com/understanding-4g-uk-everything-you-need-know

Reply


Why iD Mobile?