Rogers Unable to Enable Wifi Calling

[AnonymousUser]

I ported to Rogers yesterday with my iPhone 13 Pro (purchased directly from Apple) and I'm unable to enable Wifi calling. When I turn it on via the Phone settings menu, I get a message to contact Rogers to enable wifi calling on this account. I've done so, they've opened up a ticket, but closed it citing they can't find any problems.

It's clearly an issue on the Rogers side as when I pop in my work SIM from another carrier, I can enable and use wifi calling without any problems.

If I use my Rogers SIM in my Pixel 6, I am also unable to enable wifi calling (spinner until it times out).

Since Rogers tech support has given up, wondering if someone from Rogers here can step in and help escalate this issue for me as at this point, I have little reason to remain with Rogers as wifi calling is important to my needs.

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[ScubadooX]

It doesn't have to be a Rogers phone. If you have friends or relatives with an older model popular device from Samsung or Google, try inserting your SIM into one of those phones and enabling WFC. If it works, then move the SIM back to your phone. That's how I've gotten WFC to work on phones that initially couldn't connect via Rogers WFC. Otherwise, go to a local Rogers store, explain the problem, and ask them to give you a new SIM for free. The new SIM might work as others have explained on this thread.

[phemens]

Had the exact same issue with iPhone 11 coming from Bell. Wen to a Rogers store, they tried escalating to Rogers tech support. Same nonsense answer: if it's not a Rogers phone it is not supported. The fix was to go into the MyRogers app and validate my billing address. I copied that EXACTLY into the fields requested to activate wifi calling and it worked immediately. Exactly copying included the fact that everything was in caps. Hope this works for anyone googling this in the future.

[Hmm]

It's most unfortunate and much gaslighting and deflection. These issues have plagued Rogers since the inception of Wi-Fi calling many years ago. Re-provisioning Wi-Fi calling will (usually) work, sometimes it won't and it will (occasionally) resolve itself on it's own. 

Most recently, I'm finding tech support is saying they are Tier 2 (not the basic tech support) after escalation when they are not (they are basic support) or they are poorly trained Tier 2 (escalation support). We're living in very unhinged times, I'm, afraid. 

[MYouell]

I ported my Pixel 6 and my wife's iPhone XR yesterday from Telus. I did not have any issues setting up Rogers

WIFI-Calling on my Pixel 6 but I could not setup WIFI-Calling on the iPhone XR. After reading through this forum I put the Pixel 6 sim card in the iPhone and Rogers WIFI-Calling was enabled. I put the iPhone XR sim card in my Pixel 6 and I had no issues setting up WIFI-Calling on this sim card. I re-installed the sim cards in their original phones and now Rogers WIFI-Calling works in both phones. Is WIFI-Calling setting a Rogers sim card issue or is an iPhone issue with some models of iPhone? Both phones had not been purchased from Rogers.

[Pauly]

This is very common problem.  What you can do is when you get a new phone you can give the imei number to rogers and have them register it to your account. This will help with the provisioning of the IMS Services which other features like Wi-fi calling will work

[MYouell]

I did provide the iPhone IMEI to Rogers and that was not the solution for WIFI-Calling enablement. I did not provide the IMEI for the Pixel 6 and I did not have any issues setting up WIFI-Calling.

[Lynn16]

I just transferred from a Roger’s business line with WiFi calling, to a personal line with a “slightly used” iPhone 12 supplied by Roger’s. With the new phone I no longer have wifi calling available. Calling in to tech support was futile. This is a deal breaker for me; if Roger’s is unable to activate wifi calling, I’ll cancel my plan and return the phone.

[ScubadooX]

It's baffling but Rogers struggles mightily with WFC. Freedom Mobile is much better and also allows WFC to be used outside of Canada. FM has some terrific Boxing Week specials on right now.

[LordDrakkon]

Rogers uses a prppriatery implementation of WiFi Calling. You need to make sure your device supports that. Freedom uses the stock Android implementation, which is why it just works. WiFi Calling on Rogers does work outside of Canada. I have had non issues using it in the US and on American Airlines flights.

[ScubadooX]

I used WFC on Rogers in Indonesia and the US  this past October with no problems. The calls back to Canada were free.

[ScubadooX]

"Freedom uses the stock Android implementation." As far as I know, FM supports WFC on iPhones. Is that different from the stock Android implementation?

[Lynn16]

So, I contacted Rogers again, and this time they sent me a physical SIM card; I originally started the service with an eSIM. After installing the physical SIM card and deleting the eSIM today, still no WIFI calling, so on the phone again with Rogers. The tech agent was finally able to load WIFI calling onto my account, so all is good now.

[ScubadooX]

It's astonishing that Rogers turns Wi-Fi Calling into a drama so often.

[EhmTeeEhf]

Just an FYI I setup wifi calling on my daughters phone. She had a Rogers TCL P20 Pro and it worked without issues on Rogers, also on Freedom, They just had to get the IMEI and they pushed a config file for the device (the APN settings and so forth. Without any issues. Rogers uses a lot of custom configuration so if you have issues with the device, call into customer service and make sure the wifi calling SOC is included with your current plan. I believe it has to be a newer plan for it, but since I am not employed anymore I can't confirm if they changed this. Ask a Mod for help 🙂 Then search for the wifi calling settings on the forums, and you should be good if its an android. If its an iPhone you would need to make sure the soc is included.

[EhmTeeEhf]

Did you contact support and ask about your wifi calling provisioning?

[EhmTeeEhf]

That sounds like a T Mobile firmware issue somehow the device thinks you are in the US, and enabling Roaming is allowing the device to access the Voice over WiFi APN. Weird. I would try to manually setup a new APN, making sure your line is provisioned for WiFi Calling with Rogers. It might solve this. If not well your work around seems to be working.  This is the first time I have ever heard this issue

[EhmTeeEhf]

Nice this is awesome. Wait you said you changed sims, were you using the Shaw sim? If so that makes perfect sense as the Shaw provisioning is different from Rogers (I am assuming) even though Shaw customers connect to rogers networks,. it would be the same as if a Fido customer was connecting, they still have their own provisioning as they use Fido sims. So ya this is starting to make sense. I am glad you got the issue resolved!

[EhmTeeEhf]

One thing you have to confirm when using US based phones. Rogers uses a GSM network and sometimes US carriers have their own non GSM networks. I think it was Verizon who were still using the old standard. Non GSM, so this could be why they mentioned the phone had to be swapped to a rogers phone.

[EhmTeeEhf]

Yes a lot of people don't realize to use WiFi Calling in Canada you do have to go through the Registration that confirms your location as cell phones on rogers you have to manually input your address info to register for wifi calling. Thats because E911 doesn't have your exact location like 911 would if you use a landline. E911 is run by carriers (as a group) and they use a virtual operator to take your info if you have an emergency then they route you to 911 if its an actual emergency. This was mandated by the CRTC a few years back. For example you are on your cell phone and your in the middle of no where, when you call normal 911 from a land line they trace the call. E911 doesn't have that access they can only (this is my interpretation of this not actual facts) triangulate your position. However what if you are on the 20th floor of a building... They won''t have access to know that on E911. Then when you give them the information they need to confirm your actual location and information they route this info to 911 on your behalf. Then this process is then handled by 911 actual police or fire dept etc. If you want more info on E911 and how it works check this out: https://crtc.gc.ca/cisc/eng/cisf3e4.htm

This was the best way I could describe how 911 works on cell phones. its not perfect and my opinion. Hope it helps  🙂

[EhmTeeEhf]

My rule of thumb when you get a new device. Don't try to use your older Rogers sim. Rogers sims start with 8930 then the next few digits is the series of sim. So for example 8930xxxx4030 (Unless this has changed in the last year the 4030 is the series of sim. Newer sims will have like 4050 or 4060 and this is how to tell if your sim supports the latest technologies. So ya, get a new iPhone 14 from T mobile, go into a rogers store and get a new sim, or call in and ask for one. Confirm the series of the sims that rogers offers that supports 5G (which I currently do not know as I don't have a rogers line ATM) so then this will allow you to know that your sim is the latest. It will eliminate a lot of issues.

[LordDrakkon]

Apple uses a different system that relays everything back to Apple and through their servers. Because iPhones are so popular in North America compared to other parts of the world. Carriers have to comply with Apple or not sell their devices.
With Android, there's the standard implementation of WiFi Calling, VoLTE, and VoNR but there are also carrier specific implementations. Some carriers use a different and propriatery implementation, like AT&T, to make syre that only devices sold by AT&T can use these features on their network where carriers like T-Mobile and Freedom just use Google's stock Android implementation.