WiFi Calling (different to EE?)

[Rok]

My current mobile network provider is EE however their coverage of our area is terrible and, since they disabled all signal boosters, basically unusable. They are also say their WiFi calling is not compatible with Xiaomi Mi A2 or Asus Zenfone 8 even though both handsets support both VoLTE and VoWIFI. On top of this, the WiFi calling on an Apple iPhone X is very poor. This is via a standard BT Smart Hub for WiFi.

I've just updated our BT broadband package to Fibre Halo 3 with Complete Wi-Fi and am considering swapping to BT Mobile. The BT coverage checker indicates that we should have a strong 4G signal at this postcode. I thought BT used EE networks though? Should I trust their coverage checker?

If we don't have good coverage, will our handsets work over WiFi with BT Mobile or will we have the same problem as with EE where we have been unable to connect even though they support VoLTE and VoWIFI and we have been given no technical support because they are not on EE's list of phones that work with their WiFi calling? 

[imjolly]

As BT mobile uses the EE network I cannot see how your coverage will be any different to what you get currently

[Rok]

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@imjollywrote:

As BT mobile uses the EE network I cannot see how your coverage will be any different to what you get currently

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Thank you. That's what I though. Very dubious coverage checker!

But that leads to the second part of the question as I'd ideally like to move to BT  Mobile seeing as I already have broadband. Am I going to have the same issues with the handsets? With BT is it enough that the handsets have VoLTE and VoWIFI. If there are problems, are they going to offer technical support or do they limit their support to a set list of phones?

Or, from a different angle, is anyone successfully using Xiaomi Mi A2, ASUS Zenfone 8 and iPhone X handsets with WiFi calling on BT Mobile?

[imjolly]

Again I can't see how you are going to get WiFi calling on BT Mobile if you cannot get it to work on EE.     If you don't have a BT supplied phone then WiFi calling may or may not work  - mostly not

[Arthur_Brayne]

I've been using a Moto G6 Play, bought from Amazon, with WiFi calling through my router for the past couple of years without any problem; it is on a BT mobile SIM only contract. According to BT the G6 Play isn't supported but in all honesty I think that just means it's never been officially tested. Best way to find out is set it up for WiFi calling in the settings, turn it off/on and see if it works - if not you haven't lost anything.

[rbz5416]

I've found that Ofcom's checker is the most accurate but you have to bear in mind they're all estimates that can be dramatically thrown by the local environment. So the best way forward is to try all the networks in order of predicted coverage until you find one that actually works - or not!

https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage

Then hunt around for the best deal, bearing in mind that many MVNOs don't support WiFi Calling, Although even then there's no guarantee that your existing handsets, apart from the iPhone, will work. This is due to network providers having their own versions of Android that may or may not be tied down.

On the plus side, you can get cheap/free PAYG SIMS to try before committing to a contract.

[ctrlz]

Wi-Fi calling should work seamlessly on iPhones on both BT and EE. Certainly worked fine for me across a few different iPhones now over the last few years.

Androids can be more hit and miss, but I’d imagine if they didn’t work for Wi-Fi calling on EE then they won’t work on BT either. 
Can always try as you get a 30 day window to cancel a sim plan and get your money back.