3G Switch off: forced upgrade to a 'new' device
I have a brand new (less than 3 months old) mainstream phone from a leading manufacturer, which is ‘future proof’ in the short to medium term. This new Moto, only released December 2021, has 2100, 1800 and 800MHz capability, is provisioned for WiFi Calling/Vowifi (but doesn't work on Smarty) and is provisioned for 4G Calling/VoLTE (which I've just been told also won't work) ... Last week, Smarty contacted me giving 30 days notice "to upgrade to a new device to stay connected"! There’s no actual date for the switch off, only “mid-February”, so my phone could stop working on any random, unknown day, not coinciding with a billing period, leaving me out of pocket and out of data. To make matters worse, I have a Smarty Group plan with two identical phones, so that’s double the inconvenience. Smarty suggest getting a new phone and simply moving the sim across (there’s a cost of living crisis, right? I’m not in the game of shelling out a couple of hundred pounds every three months) or only using my handset in 3G areas (how far will I have to drive just to send a text message, haha). Actually, it’s in Smarty’s gift to certify more devices, saving pointless ££upgrades. Smarty Tech Support just need to force their settings to more devices. Two years on, the only Motorola fully supported (in their own words) for Wifi Calling on SMARTY is the G8 Power, even though others (such as my G31) are fully provisioned for Wi-Fi Calling. I wonder just how many Motos and other devices will now be deemed VoLTE incompatible re. the 3G switch off. SMARTY say that their friends at Three have a handy device tool which will show if your device is VoLTE compatible, but its not even an up to date list. After a time-wasting trawl through the list, only three Moto (release dates 2017 & 2018) out of 33 listed are compatible. Am I really supposed to 'upgrade' from a 2021 phone to a 2017 phone? I more than strongly suspect that the solution to my grief lies entirely with Smarty, as I have a dual sim phone. In the empty sim slot, VoWifi and VoLTE are switched on and raring to go. In the slot with the Smarty sim, all of a sudden they're greyed out. I messaged Smarty on social media with all the exact same information above and politely asking to be escalated to Tech Support. Below is all I got back (just platitudes) along with my reply and that’s the last I heard. Still at least I can rest easy in the knowledge that I won’t have any phone service, but I’ll be some kind of Smarty case study. The customer agent didn’t even ask me for my name and account details, to get back to me with an outcome. Smarty: “I understand your frustrations with the support for your device. The team are working on as many solutions as possible for the pending 3G switch off. I will raise this to the team as its great to get such insight into how this can effect customers on Moto devices -Nathan” Me: “Yes but I've had my 30 days notice of being abandoned by Smarty (a week ago), can’t afford to wait 3 more weeks and then wake up with no phone service one morning … Needs action not insight please. This is carrier-specific” Rant over, but I hope this is a useful 'heads up' for other users who will be affected. Or if anyone can help me out, please do. (Smarty would do well to look at the shambles last year that was BT Digital Voice - a similar switch off, on similar timescales, for similar reasons; this was abandoned as a complete fiasco, ill thought through from a customer experience point of view). Thanks Smarty, it was good while it lasted.
Can't make/receive calls?? Not necessarily a network problem!
There are a LOT of customers posting in the Community that are having problems making/receiving calls on their device even though it has the 'capablility' of connecting to VoLTE/4G Calling and WiFi Calling. Even if your device is on the SMARTY 'Approved Phones' list (or not) this may not be down to SMARTY supporting your phone BUT because of something you may not know about. What many people do NOT know, is that when a mobile phone is sold by a 'Network' it is controlled by them with regards to software/firmware updates that will enable certain features to be available on your phone (even when 'update software' is performed on the device). I recently got a 'hand-me-down' Samsung Galaxy J4+ phone from my sister that had VoLTE and WiFI Calling ability (among many other features) available to use but they could NOT be accessed on the SMARTY or iD network. After much research I found iD Mobile supported my phone and yet when I changed over to their network I was still was unable to access these features (VoLTE/WiFi Calling) on my device. What I didn't know is that all phones are controlled by the 'Network' that it was originally sold by and it had their firmware enbedded in to the device For example. the firmware on my SG J4+ was:- SAOMC_SM-J415FN_OVF_VOD_PP_0015 / 40009a7d / VOD/VOD/VOD which shows that the firmware on my phone was controlled by Vodafone (VOD) which was the network that my sister was a customer of and had purchased the phone from. (This information can be found in the phone under 'Software Information'). Unless I was 'connected to/used' the Vodafone network with this phone I wasn't able to get the firmware updates to enable all the capabilities available. The ONLY way to 'free' a device for updates, so that it can be used with ALL networks, was to 'FLASH' the phone to an Unbranded firmware. After Flashing my phone this is the software that is now on my device:- SAOMC_SM-J415FN_OXM_XEU_PP_0013 / 40009a7d / XEU/XEU/VOD (XEU is 'unbranded'). I now have ALL the capabilities that this phone has with the capacity to use VoLTE, WiFi Calling etc. These are the codes to which your phone network is locked in to:- BTU (unbranded) EVR (EE) BTC, CPW (Carphone Warehouse) H3G, O2I, O2U (O2) ORA (Orange) TMU (T-Mobile) TSC, VIR, VOD (Vodafone) XEU (EE & Three) If you go down the 'Flashing' route... PLEASE do your research! It is easy to do once you know how but there are many things you need to know to do it safely! SO, the conclusion of this is that this isn't just a 'network provider' problem i.e. unsupported phone, but could most likely be a firmware problem/restriction. IF, you decide to 'FLASH' a device then PLEASE do your research! There are many 'small' details to take in to account but once you have all the info it is straight forward and easy to do! Good luck all and I hope this helps solve a problem that affects so many!VoLTE calling over 4G
I have a Motorola G7 Plus phone which due to the 3G switchoff is currently not able to make network voice calls (only possible via 3rd party apps such as WhatsApp). When going into Testing mode on the phone it clearly shows the VoLTE calling option as greyed out but doing internet searches it appears this phone model can support VoLTE calling even with Android 10. However there is no selectable VoLTE calling option available in the Networks settings menus on the phone. Other Motorola G series devices such as G8 are listed as compatible at Android 10 on the 3 website. Does SMARTY need to enable VoLTE calling for my SIM so that the VoLTE option will then become selectable in the Networks settings menu? Hopefully you can cross reference my SIM details from my login.
