Can't re-enable "Add Wi-Fi Calling For Other Devices" after iPhone reset

[JoeN]

I've been with EE for a few weeks. One of the features that pulled me to move to EE from O2 was "Wi-Fi Calling For Other Devices" which allows devices on the same iCloud account to make and receive calls on my EE number, whilst my phone is offline. I understand that EE call this service "Smart Number".

When I first moved to EE, this feature was working fine. As advertised, I could make and receive calls on my EE number from both of my Macs, even if I turned my phone off. Last night, I was troubleshooting an issue on my iPhone with BT Wi-Fi and I reset the network settings on my phone. Since then, I've been able to re-enable "Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone", but not the option below for "Add Wi-Fi Calling For Other Devices" (Smart Number). This is different to the normal "Allow Calls on Other Devices" which requires that my iPhone be online and on the same Wi-Fi network as the device that I'm trying to make/receive a call from/to.

This was working fine, but now, for the life of me, I cannot re-enable it. When I try to, it shows the message:

Wi-Fi Calling

To allow Wi-Fi calling on this account, contact EE.

So, as I'm asked to, I contacted EE and spoke to a guy in tech support. From the word go, it seemed like this was the first time he'd heard of this feature. He left me on hold and spoke to another team and came back and said that this feature has been removed due to fraud. He said that this feature was never even officially supported by EE. Note that this feature was announced on EE's media portal here.

There appears to be no correspondence from EE online to say that this feature has been decommissioned. On the contrary, EE's website still talks about how to use it, how to set it up on various devices and even lists what types of operating systems are supported.

I don't fully believe that this feature has been turned off. If it has, it's really annoying as it was a useful feature for me as I live in an area where phone signal is sometimes hard to find and I sometimes don't have my phone on me, but I'm usually connected to Wi-Fi. This feature was therefore something that pulled me to join EE.

Does anyone know what's going on with this feature? Is it working still? Has it officially been decommissioned? If so, is there some correspondence to back this up and when is the EE website going to be updated to stop misleading new customers to think that this is a supported feature?

[Christopher_G]

Hi @JoeN.

Welcome to the community.

As far as I'm aware, and that I can see, Smart Number is still an active service. 

The guidance that I've found for setting it up says to make sure that you have all of the devices that you're looking to set up with you, connected to the same WiFi with Facetime set up on them too.

Then, on your iPhone, go to Settings > Phone > Calls on other devices (switch ON) > Then Add WiFi calling For Other Devices.

Is that where it's saying "To allow Wi-Fi calling on this account, contact EE"?

Chris

[JoeN]

Hi Chris, thanks for your reply.

The guidance that I've found for setting it up says to make sure that you have all of the devices that you're looking to set up with you, connected to the same WiFi with Facetime set up on them too.

I can confirm that I have all three devices on my desk; they're all connected to my home Wi-Fi network and they're all signed in to the same iCloud account in FaceTime.

Then, on your iPhone, go to Settings > Phone > Calls on other devices (switch ON) > Then Add WiFi calling For Other Devices.

Is that where it's saying "To allow Wi-Fi calling on this account, contact EE"?

Yep. When I try to toggle on "Add WiFi Calling For Other Devices", that's when I get the message below:

Thanks,

Joe

EDIT: For some reason my screenshots aren't displaying here. I was trying to confirm in the screenshots the option that I was enabling ("Add WiFi Calling For Other Devices") and the error message that's displayed ("To allow Wi-Fi calling on this account, contact EE").

[Chris_B]

@JoeN   Sign out of all your devices then turn off and restart them,  now sign back in to your all your devices.  I had this usually week and this is how I sorted it. 

[JoeN]

Thanks. I've already signed out of iCloud on my iPhone, then restarted it and then signed back in to iCloud, then restarted my iPhone again (for good measure) and still can't enable this option on the iPhone. I've not tried signing out of iCloud on the other devices, as the issue appears to be on the iPhone as that's where I can't turn this option on. I guess I could try it anyway...

[Chris_B]

@JoeN   I might if even removed them from my Apple account.   And then signed back in on them.   ( sorry I just can not remember if that exactly what I did )

[bristolian]

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@JoeN wrote:

EDIT: For some reason my screenshots aren't displaying here. I was trying to confirm in the screenshots the option that I was enabling ("Add WiFi Calling For Other Devices") and the error message that's displayed ("To allow Wi-Fi calling on this account, contact EE").

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FYI images need to manually approved before they're publicly displayed. That should all be done now.

[JoeN]

@bristolian Thanks

[JoeN]

@Chris_B I've just done these steps, but I still get the same error:

• Signed out of iCloud on all of my devices
• Made sure that none of my devices were on my Apple account
• Turned all devices off
• Turned iPhone on
• Signed in to iCloud on iPhone
• Waited 2 mins
• Enabled "Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone"
• At this point, the "Add Wi-Fi Calling For Other Devices" option was not available -- it just didn't show up
• I signed in to iCloud on one of my Macs
• Waited 2 mins
• On my iPhone, "Add Wi-Fi Calling For Other Devices" was available, so I tried to turn it on, but I got the same error as previously posted.
• I ensured that "Allow Calls on Other Devices" was switched on, and it was already on. I assume that when I signed in to iCloud on my Mac, FaceTime attempted to turn this on automatically. Note: This is the basic Wi-Fi calling feature where your phone has to be on and connected to the same network and not "Allow Calls on Other Devices".
• I signed in to iCloud on another Mac and I'm still unable to re-enable "Allow Calls on Other Devices".

I've gone in to a bit of detail here, in a hope that it will help. Sorry if it's a bit too verbose...

[Katie_B]

Thanks for confirming @JoeNyland. 

I have sent you a private message for more details. 

Katie 🙂