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wifi calling with airplane mode on -- why is this so hard?

OK, wow! 10 hours with Verizon customer service folks, someone at a verizon store, tech folks, etc. All super helpful and very competent, yet no one can help me solve this.

We live in an area with very spotty verizon network coverage (verizon is sending a network extender tomorrow, so already know about that). If I make a wi-fi call (Optimum cable wi-fi) and have cellular on, the calls are badly compromised, as it jumps over to cell if even one bar shows up, and then people cannot hear me, or it cuts off completely. So, I started turning airplane mode on and making calls. It worked very well until recently. With airplane mode on I had no issues with compromised calls. I have an iphone 13mini (ditto on everything above for my wife on an iphone 15). Just recently (w/i last couple of months) it started to tell me, when I tried to make a call on my phone, with airplane mode ON and wi-fi connected, it would say "No Network Connection | Connect to a wi-fi network or disable airplane mode to place a call | Cancel | Disable Airplane Mode"

To save everyone time, I know all of the settings are correct (believe me when I say I am close to 10 hours on this now with folks at Verizon -- again all very nice, seemingly very competent, JUST NOT TRAINED ON THIS QUESTION).

If someone knows the answer to this question they are a phone network / wi-fi call GOD.

Why was I previously able to make wi-fi calls with airplane mode on, on my iphone, but now I am not able to (or just very rarely able to)? Is this able to be fixed?

Comments

Verizon_Support

timaaaaaay, we want to make sure that you're able to make/receive calls at home without running into any issues. If you're no longer able to places calls under Wi-Fi Calling when your device is on Airplane Mode, this may be due to a system update on your device that disabled that feature. What troubleshooting has been completed on your devices? If the issue is also being experienced on your wife's phone, it truly would seem to be a device limitation. The good news is that with the Network Extender being delivered to you, this should not be an issue for much longer.

~Izzy

timaaaaaay

Izzy--

Thank you for responding. I thought I was pretty clear that every troubleshooting attempt possible was tried during the 10 hours I was on the phone with 4 different customer service people. They even sent me a replacement phone, to be sure that it wasn't my phone. There is nothing that was not tried that anyone at Verizon is capable of sharing as a possible reason for the problem. No one has been able to tell me if there is a list of iphone devices that are limited in this way. Shouldn't verizon know that answer? I can't imagine that anyone else knows that if no one at verizon knows it.
So, here are my new questions (to reach GOD status):

1) what is the list of devices that ARE able to make calls while in Airplane mode and on wi-fi and what is the list of devices that ARE NOT (I am guessing that only someone at Verizon will know this)?
2) why can my device SOMETIMES make a call on wi-fi (e.g. after I sent the note above I switched to my 2.4GHz wireless network, and voilà, I was able to make one call. Then, when I tried a second time, nosiree (and not again since)?
3) what changed, and WHEN, such that my device (13 mini) is no longer able to consistently make wi-fi calls with Airplane mode ON?

Suzy_upset

Im having similar issues. We have Optimum fiber optic. I have Verizon cell service with WiFi calling ON. We have experienced a degradation of service over he past 6-8 months. At first it was people not hearing me well / we would do a call back and maybe it would be solved. Then calls would drop. Now we notice that if our service is one bar or no bars, we might be able to make a call. If our service in on SOS mode, no calls can be made or received even though we have 4 bars for wifi and wifi calling is ON. We have called them as this is a serious issue in an area with poor cell reception and limited towers and their solution is an extender which, as I understand it, connects to a satellite.

what I cannot understand is why the wifi calling, which worked so well for such a long period of time, no longer works. And I cannot get an answer either.

Best of luck! To me it seems like a compatibility issue between Apple and possibly Verizon (or Optimum but who knows) and none of them want to address it or fix the issue. Super frustrating since we pay for a land line to have in the event of emergency since we know our cell phones cannot be relied upon!!!

Fermobianchi

Same problem. Out of nowhere can’t connect to VZW WiFi in airplane mode. So frustrating if you live in an area with spotty service.

Verizon_Support

Hello Fermobianchi. We understand the need for a connection when cellular service may not be available. WiFi calling is a great option but may not be available on all devices. We will send you a private message to gather some addtional information to ensure the next best steps to help resolve this issue.

-Toni

btar

Same issue here! Started a few weeks ago! Every night we put our phones on airplane mode and have always been able to receive and make calls through our Wi-Fi. We also use this capability when we are on vacation (internationally) so that phone calls only come through when we are connected to the hotel Wi-Fi. Now, when I am home with WiFi calling on, I can make and receive calls but part of the way into my phone conversations the other person can’t hear me but I can hear them. If I try to turn on airplane mode it tells me I need to connect to the wifi even though I already am connected. So frustrating! I have spent easily 10 hours trouble shooting with Verizon. They are now telling me it was apples latest update 18.3.2 but I have seen many other people complaining about this on line since 2016. If anyone figured it out and got it working could you please let me know? Thanks

SynthpopAddict

Maybe an IPv6 problem?

https://community.verizon.com/t5/Apple/Wifi-Calling-Issue-on-IPv6/td-p/1803522

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