History repeats itself once again. Before buying an Unlocked S21 Ultra I contacted Verizon and they toldl me that WiFi calling WILL work. We even spoke about past problems with this. So now that I actually buy the phone and have it they NOW tell me it will NOT work.
This same thing happened with my Unlocked Note 9 2.5 years ago (about a year later an update came to the Note 9 and then WiFi calling started to work). Exactly! I thought after 2.5 years this would have been something that would have been worked out and that the Verizon rep I talked to knew what they were talking about (recent call).
So, does WiFi calling work on the unlocked Samsung S21 Ultra or not? I need to get it enabled for calling in poor signal areas. I've now worked with a few reps and now they are telling me it does not.
Why would a rep know what works and doesn't for unlocked phones? Not all of them even use Verizon as their carrier. Their product info is only going to be for Verizon versions of a phone and that's it.
Unless you get a rep that has Verizon AND using an unlocked phone themselves, don't expect the typical rep to know about unlocked limitations on carrier features. If specific features are important, get the carrier version.
I have no use for wifi calling and having an SD slot mattered more so I got an unlocked S20. But I also know better than to expect someone underpaid to knoe about the differences between my phone and what Verizon sales. To expect different is being unrealistic.
For those interested in this matter:
I'm not certain what resolved this. Level 2 support opened a tkt with their IT dept but nothing had been done on the backend yet. I think what resolved this matter was one of two paths I took this morning:
Previous to these two steps enabling WiFi calling had failed again. I'm not sure if a setting was copied off of the SIM from the Note 9 or for some reason a change previously made by Verizon (earlier support call) was updated by removing the new SIM and reinstalling it. Either way WiFi calling now works. I put the S12 in airplane mode, enabled WiFi and was able to make a call. I verified the cell was still disabled first.
So you know I was asked to Reset Network Setting and shutdown the phone and bring it back up in the past. But no success until the steps above had been gone through.
SBMongoose, we are happy to learn your device is now working as expected. Thank you for the update.
Any update if this is still working? I am considering buying the unlocked 21 Ultra, but WIFI calling is critical for me.
cmccullick, we are not aware of any wide reported issue with Wi-Fi Calling and the S21 Ultra. Devices purchased directly with Verizon Wireless will function will all available features including Wi-Fi Calling. "Unlocked" Devices purchased through 3rd party retailers are not specifically formatted for the Verizon Wireless network and there can be issues with certain features not working properly. Please reach out if you have any further questions.
-Joshua
I have Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra SM-G9980 256GB 12GB RAM, it was NOT purchased from Verizon. I purchased it Feb 28th 2021, I have tried for almost a year now Janm 29th 2022..and if there is a solution I CAN'T FIND IT. I switched to ATT and to T-mobile and it worked! But the cell coverage was not good so I am forced to use Verizon for good cell coverage and ATT (duel sim) for the wifi calls. This is such a pain and is expensive. Why can't Version do what ATT and T-Mobile can do.
Will ditch the Samsung first chance I get and go back to Motorola. This had taken up at least 40 hours of research time only to come up empty time and time again.
If you want wifi calling and Samsung dual sim 256 phone, switch carriers.
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