Can’t make or receive Wifi calls in Airplane Mode + Wifi turned on

Clc4

Details:

New iPhone 16 ProMax
Verizon carrier
Wifi 272.6 download, 26.7 upload, 24ms latency

My rural home has almost no Verizon service varying between 1-2 bars and SOS, so I need to be able to use Wifi calling. Inevitably with Wifi calling enabled (while not in Airplane mode), I can hear people on calls with perfect clarity, but my voice drops out for them, or is unintelligible and sounds like a robot, leaving me running around the house asking “can you hear me now?” trying to find the best place to be heard and eventually giving up.

I read that if I put the phone in Airplane Mode and turn both Wifi and Wifi calling on, it should force the phone to stay on Wifi calling and not try to bounce between that and cellular coverage. But while all other Wifi-based activities work, I cannot receive calls with this set up or make them. When attempting to make a call, I get a popup saying “No Network Connection - Connect to a Wi-Fi network or disable airplane mode to place a call”. 🤬 I AM connected to Wifi!

Most frustrating is that while incoming calls don’t ring on my phone while in Airplane mode, they do ring on my iPad and Macbook, neither of which have cellular service so are entirely dependent on calls from my phone. When I answer those calls on those devices, people can hear me just fine.

How do I fix this so I can take and make calls on my iPhone with Wifi calling in Airplane mode?

SynthpopAddict

I've heard different things about this...some say you can use WiFi while in airplane mode, others say you have to shut airplane mode off. Have you tried disabling cellular data, so then the phone can only use WiFi? Or maybe switching the network band to "LTE" so the phone only uses LTE and not 5G, and maybe your call quality will be better. Also check that VoLTE is enabled on the phone because I'm pretty sure Verizon still uses the LTE side of the network for voice calls, so if you shut it off, then the phone is going to run really oddly with calls.

If all else fails, maybe it's time to port? After all, there's not a lot of sense in paying a carrier for their service if you have to use WiFi all the time...