Why am I getting phone calls when my phone is in airplane mode and WiFi is turned off

[Peters248]

I was recently out of the country.  My Samsung S7 was in Airplane Mode and the WiFi was turned off.  But I still got occasional phone (voice) calls and "missed call" alerts.  Why? Doesn't Airplane Mode disconnect the phone from the VZW or other telco network? And when WiFi was disabled, there should have been no way a wireless signal could get to my phone.

[rcschnoor]

If you are receiving phone calls while your phone is in airplane mode, someone must have gone into the settings and turned the radios back on.

You can place a phone in airplane mode and then individually go into the settings menu and turn on the various types of signals(i.e. wifi, bluetooth). The phone would still indicate it is in airplane mode, though. In this manner, your phone could indicate it is in airplane mode even though many of its radios are turned on and receiving signals.

[Peters248]

Where are the settings you refer to? My settings show: date roaming

access is denied, Network Mode is "global," WiFi calling is set to "on"

but I had WiFi turned off, and nobody changed those settings since I am

the only person with access to the phone.

[vzw_customer_support]

That is very interesting to have that happen with airplane mode on. Let's dig deeper. How many times did this happen? At any point did you switch the phone back on to use Wifi when a network was available? Were you charged for this international call?

AnthonyM_VZW
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[Peters248]

This happened about half a dozen times until I put the phone in "Do Not

Disturb" mode. However, my call log shows two calls from Romania on

1/27 & 1/28. These calls do not appear on the Verizon call log, only on

the phone's call log. I refused both of these calls. There were times

during my trip when I turned WiFi on but only occasionally.

[rcschnoor]

Any time wifi was turned on, you should have been able to receive calls via wifi. Then if any of those time you forgot to turn wifi back off, you would have still been able to continue receiving calls when in range of a wifi signal.

Of course, I don't think calls via wifi would have been charged at international rates, simply normal calls counted towards your plan. The calls you refused would not show up in the Verizon call log because they were not connected.

[Peters248]

So, if I understand you, my phone has VOIP enabled for incoming calls

when WiFi is on and Airplane Mode is enabled? Does this also apply to

outbound calls: calls made from the phone to, for example, a wireline

number in the U.S.?

[rcschnoor]

I cannot guarantee this is the case, but I would think that it is in fact true.

I know when I had Project Fi, outgoing wifi calls to US numbers regardless of where the calls originated, were counted as normal in-network calls. I would imagine the same would hold true for Verizon. When a call is made via wifi, Verizon does not have to pay to have foreign cellular providers to route the call, so there should be no additional charges for these calls as there would be if you were using the cellular towers of foreign providers.

[vzw_customer_support]

Understanding how WiFi calling works is an integral part of international travel, Peters248. As rschnoor pointed out incoming calls over WiFi wouldn’t impact your billing while in Airplane Mode. The same would apply to outgoing calls over WiFi when in Airplane Mode. I recently went on a trip myself outside the U.S. and used this feature to stay connected when I had WiFi available.
In the event you didn’t use WiFi calling you wouldn’t be billed for using your service outside the U.S. for a phone call unless you answered the call. Since you declined or missed the call anyway you wouldn’t have had to worry about airtime.

JosephE_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the ?Correct Answer? button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!

[JanieBard]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 and despite having Airplane mode turned on, Mobile data turned off, no Roaming allowed, when I get into a wi-fi environment, my phone still rings with calls from the US (I'm currently out of the country).  I do not answer the calls.  They go to voice mail.  And then Travel Pass is triggered which costs my $10/day.  Support wasn't able to help me.

[KH-Michael]

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