Update your phone software to 9.3.2, it should help..

Amen. But it won't stop. We'll get 150kbps and tunein radio repeated ad nauseum. The sooner we get out of this ridiculous switching situation, the better. Can't wait for rollout to complete.

4G rollout is continuing in the North East, I had good strength 4G in Udny Green 2 weeks ago (was covered only by Orange 2G previously. Yesterday when I went back, I could only find 3G (but on the T-Mobile code) so the mast is obviously still in testing.

The centre of Ellon is still not covered by the large mast at Hillhead, which I find a little strange. Meanwhile, the dreaded competition are catching up very quickly with the whole town covered well by 4G. But it's still slower :P

I find it amazing that VO2 can vast swathes of rural Aberdeenshire from relatively few masts. EE must have twice the number, and still suffer from "no service" in places that Vodafone in particular cover well. Hopefully this will change with time. I'm sure Orange used to cover some of these places. However, this could be due to the fact that back in the day, I had a 2G phone with a much larger antenna hehe.

An awful lot of rural Orange masts still being relied upon to provide coverage... It will be a couple of years yet before they get upgraded. Meanwhile, VO2 can just swan in and upgrade their one mast on a hill.

It's true that VO2 can offer a huge coverage area with some of their big towers. Beacon Hill near me would be one, a TV mast. Put 800LTE on that and boom. Big coverage in one hit. The question in the long run is what speed do people expect and whether they will run into capacity issues with a few big towers. For me at the moment a couple meg is fine if it's everywhere and always there. That won't always be the case and I think EE are better placed to provide more capacity down the line. EE are also looking to intensify it's 800 roll out by the look of it and will give almost blanket coverage from a lot of masts in time. So, higher average speeds per user. Interesting times.......

It's officially live now. It's on the 4G calling help page.

The community page is also stating that the Nokia Lumia Lumia 550, 650, 950 and 950XL phones DO NOT have to be bought from EE anymore to get VoLTE.

Great news.

Still working in my bit of Cornwall, but I guess it depends on the availability of the "Orange network".

3's 3G coverage is pretty good here, and has been for a while (the blackspots are usually the same places where EE/Orange 2G doesn't reach). 800Mhz 4G makes a real difference though.

This is probably the difference between 1800 and 800; and so only a handful of 800 masts need to be rolled out for wide coverage, but quite a lot of the old 2G 1800 masts need to be converted to 4G. Once complete however the 1800 network will have a lot more capacity than the 800 networks.... just ask people in parts of Bristol about Vodafone 4G at less than 1.0 Mbps at lunchtimes, where EE can do 8 Mbps. (At night the same area manages 90 Mbps on EE and 30 Mbps on Vodafone).

If EE turn on 800mhz as well in that area, things will really get interesting

That's how I see it, EE do each village/town with 1800 and then turn on 800 to cover the gaps between the built up areas - whereas VO2 turn on 800 to start with and get thin and crispy coverage everywhere, but once a handful of users performance will fall, requiring more masts to be built. (Or not as they didn't build in the 3G days).

Pretty sure Three's 2G fallback isn't dependent on orange code from EE, its a commercial decision. Maybe Three have higher mast density in Hampshire than in Cornwall.


Given EE has the same allocation (5mhz) of 800 that Three have, EE will only turn on 800 when it makes sense and doesn't get saturated. Hence the 1800 upgrade first.

What happens when you are on a VoLTE and move out of a 4G area? Does the call just drop, or does it do some clever switching to continue on the older technologies?

Yup... VO2 upgraded their site at Meldrum Transmitter recently, provides really wide coverage (they FINALLY put 3G in and 900'd it at the same time). As it's a relatively sparsely populated area, I wonder if congestion will ever be a problem up here.

EE also have a transmitter at Meldrum, but of course its footprint is limited to that of 3G at present. Such a bloody millstone

If you are on Three the call will drop.
If you are on EE the VoLTE call will SRVCC to 3G or 2G with, I hasten to add, near 100% reliability. SRVCC is why VoLTE took so long in the first place. It's basically bloody hard to get working properly.
This is also why Three could get VoLTE out before anyone else.
They didn't do it properly and skipped the tricky part.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRVCC

SRVCC does exist on Three DevonBloke. Just that it's rare you would start a call on 800 4G, and end it on 2100 3G. But it definitely exists, and works.
The main problem with VoLTE on Three has been the priority levels and overestimated coverage maps, srvcc on Three was actually quite reliable when I've experienced it.

Over 48 hours uptime on my 6P, and WiFi Calling is still working. Seems promising! Longest it ever lasted on the 5X was about 24.

Is it theoretically possible to do IMS over 3G?

Yes, but just don't. VoHSPA is the 'proper' name.

3's inTouch app sort of does this if you start a call on 4G and lose coverage. It's an interesting experience to say the least

I updated to 9.3.2 last night and still the same last night and tonight, not connecting to WiFi calling.

Turned WiFi calling off and on again, but still not working.

Obviously I'm not that bothered because I get a decent signal at home, but surely being in a VoLTE area shouldn't affect WiFi calling... Unless the timing of the issue is just a coincidence.

LOL. It was just an idle question, I'm not advocating it in any shape or form.

Wonder if that is because HSPA ended up being very IP driven, not as good as LTE but a lot thinner in the cellular stack.

The EE 4G calling help page says Sheffield is live for VoLTE. It was, but stopped working a couple of weeks ago. Handover from wifi calling still works though.

Well I stand corrected then. Just I'd heard some say it did and some say it didn't but a lot more said it didn't.
I guess that's not very scientific...


EDIT: Just to confirm, yes I was wrong and you were right. Now had it confirmed.
Never listen to what others say, that's my advice... haha

As far as I know, when EE recolour a mast to T-Mobile, if Three still need 2G fallback in that area (and are paying EE presumably) then they leave 2G broadcasting on the Orange code at that mast, along with the new codes/technologies.

Yeah I've tested and a call does go from 4G to 3G. I started a call downstairs on 800MHz and then went upstairs where 3G is stronger and the call decided it wanted that more. Even though 800MHz was obviously still available, and stronger! Calls will not go from 3G to 4G though, which I find annoying.

I think reverse srvcc is too complex to implement.