Xperia 5 Wi-Fi Calling on T-Mobile USA?

[jeremyan]

Hello,

Does the Xperia 5 support WiFi calling and/or HD Calling (Voice over LTE) on T-Mobile USA?

Thank you

[Jonas]

Hi @jeremyan,

The Xperia 5 supports the feature but if a specific operator will support it, that question is better asked directly to the operator in question, in your case T-Mobile as it is up to them to support it if they want to have it. I don't have a list of all the operators that supports this feature and VoWiFi as the list would be endless since there are so many operators in all the different countries.

I don't know exactly how it works in the US, but I would assume that you need the US specific model (J8270) and perhaps the device needs to be bought from T-Mobile. Here in the Nordics you need the Dual SIM version of a device and with the Nordic software, otherwise it won't work.

I hope that helps!

[jeremyan]

Thank you Jonas,

Isn't this a 5 second email with the person at Sony Mobile running the North American release?  A simple "yes," "no," or "we haven't decided yet" would be welcomed.

Imagine T-Mobile's response if we ask them:  "We are one of the big 4 USA carriers and couldn't possibly know all the thousands of random devices released in the world that we don't sell in our stores."

The XZ1 Compact was not sold in T-Mobile stores, and did support the VoLTE feature. The unreliable information on the Internet says the device manufacturer (Sony) has to decide whether to certify it, i.e., decide to pay for it, but I have no idea if that's correct - if it is then the answer should be even easier.  Your help is appreciated!!  (and I hope that it supports it)

[Jonas]

Hi again @jeremyan,

I don't have the contact information to the person responsible for this, but I can of course check if I can find some more information. All the information I have available is that the device supports both features (Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE).

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what the process looks like but I know in the Nordics, Xperia devices was the first ones to support this at the operators that offered the service back in the Xperia Z5-series days. This can of course depend on the Sony office in Sweden and it's easy communication between both parties.

Let me do some more digging!

[DavidG-TH]

I'd also like to know the answer to this question and how to do it.

I'm in Thailand on True network, and this worked great on my old XZ2. WiFi calling does not seem to be happening on my new Xperia 5, but it might be that I need to find the settings in a different place to get it going?

[Jonas]

Hi @DavidG-TH,

The setting will be available in two different places depending on if you have a single SIM device or a dual SIM device.

For single SIM devices, open up the Phone application > Tap the menu button (three vertical dots) > Settings > Calls > Wi-Fi Calling.

For dual SIM devices, open up the Phone application > Tap the menu button (three vertical dots) > Settings > Calling accounts > Select a SIM card > Wi-Fi Calling.

If you can't find the setting in either places, check with your operator if they support Wi-Fi calling for the Xperia 5. Depending on operator, your phone must sometimes be operator-branded and/or use operator-customised system software.

Let me know if that helps!

[Genorok64]

I'm currently typing this up on my Xperia 5 running on T-Mobile USA and I can confirm that currently I am unable to turn on WiFi Calling on my device when connected to T-Mobile. 

I can say I know how if it were able as I previously had the feature on my XZ1 Compact before upgrading to this phone. 

It would be amazing if Sony USA could get that certificate built into a future release of the OTA in the OEM file in the firmware. 

[Jonas]

Hi @Genorok64,

Yeah, I got some information very recently that I forgot to include in this post.

After the Xperia XZ1-series, no Xperia devices supports Wi-Fi calling with operators in the United States.

I'm not quite sure who is responsible for not making it available, if it is the operators that doesn't want it, or if it is Sony.

You may be able to find out for more about this if you get in touch with T-Mobile and they can hopefully confirm who the responsible party is for not making it available.

[Genorok64]

Thanks Jonas. After talking with T Mobile, the answer is both parties. T Mobile has a certificate that is used on the device to allow connections to their texting/calling API for WiFi Calling. Sony has to install the certificate in their OEM and test to verify it works. Sony is also in charge of installing that certificate in their OS software. 

[Jonas]

Hi @Genorok64, thanks a lot for getting back to me.

Oh, interesting!

Wish I knew the exact reason for why Sony has decided to not install and test it and then verify it with T Mobile, but that decision is made by people way above my pay grade and in the end it probably has to to with money (like it always does).

Here in the Nordics every operator that supports Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE includes most Xperia devices from the Xperia Z5-series and onwards but it's probably easier here since it's not a specific model for this market and it's the same software customization across all operators.

I don't know much about operators in the US, but from what I have read on the Internet, it seems to be a lot of very exclusive deals and that some devices are only available at a certain operators and so forth. It seems to be a lot more "restricted" than what I'm used to here in the Nordics at least.

In this case, the best suggestion I have is that you get in touch with our Support team for the US market and see if they know more about this and if they can find out if there are any plans to work together with, in your case, T Mobile. You can get in touch with them on the link below.

https://support.sonymobile.com/us/contactUs/