Smart Number / Wifi Calling not working on iPad

stoli412 · ‎14-07-2022

I'm having difficulty enabling Smart Number / Wifi Calling on my iPad. I am an EE pay monthly customer.

My devices:

iPhone 11 Pro (using an EE eSIM)

iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd gen, wifi only)

MacBook Pro 14-inch (2021)

Apple Watch (6th gen)

On my iPhone in Settings/Phone/Wi-Fi Calling, I have enabled both "Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone" and "Add Wi-Fi Calling For Other Devices". In Settings/Phone/Calls on Other Devices, I have enabled "Allow Calls on Other Devices" and "Allow Calls on" is enabled for both my MacBook and iPad.

I got the prompts on both my MacBook and iPad to enable Wi-Fi Calling and enabled them. On my MacBook, I'm able to make calls directly, even if my iPhone is switched off.

No such luck on my iPad; I can make calls only if my iPhone is switched on and on the same wifi network. In Settings/FaceTime/Calls from iPhone, it is enabled and says "Use your iPhone mobile account to make and receive calls directly on this iPad using Wi-Fi." So, it appears that the iPad has enabled full Wi-Fi Calling but it never works without the iPhone being switched on and on the same network.

I've tried disabling and enabling Wi-Fi Calling on all devices several times, restarting all the devices, signing out of iCloud on all devices, but I always get the same result. I tried chatting with EE tech support but they were utterly useless...I don't think they really understand what Smart Number / Wi-Fi Calling is. They kept trying to tell me to put a SIM in my iPad, or that iPads not sold directly through EE weren't compatible. When I pointed out that my MacBook has no SIM slot nor do EE sell MacBooks themselves yet Smart Number / Wi-Fi Calling was working perfectly fine, that's when they got to the end of their scripted answers and fobbed me off.

Can anyone please help me get Smart Number / Wi-Fi Calling working properly on my iPad?! Please don't tell me to ring/chat to 150 again...they really have no idea what they're doing and I don't think I have the strength or patience to handle another fruitless 2-hour session!

stoli412 · ‎01-12-2022

@ventmore wrote:
Hi @stoli412......I posted in another thread about this exact issue. Did you ever find a solution?

Hi, never found a solution and it's still not working for me. EE support sends me to Apple support. Apple support sends me to EE support. No one takes responsibility to investigate, let alone fix, the problem.

I suspect it's a problem on EE's end given the number of people who have trouble getting it working. I had a similar problem trying to activate EE--Alexa integration. That wouldn't work for months and then suddenly started working with no changes on my end. So all I do now is try activating iCloud calling every few weeks to see if EE have quietly fixed the problem.

ventmore · ‎01-12-2022

Hi @stoli412

Thanks for the update. I too believe it's a problem at EE's end. I look into this every now and again, so I'll let you know if I ever find a solution...or if it just spontaneously starts to work one day.

Chris_B · ‎01-12-2022

Can you check this setting

Go to settings>FaceTime on your device & choose "Use Apple ID for FaceTime" it will ask you if you want to sign into your Apple ID & that should allow you to use any other device using your Apple ID to allow calls.

it also says this on the enable of this feature. The iPhone has to be switched on and on the same network

ventmore · ‎01-12-2022

All the "Settings" are correct...everything's enabled that needs to be enabled, and the mac works fine, so it's not an issue with the iPhone settings. I've disabled the settings for the ipad on both the iPhone and the iPad, then rebooted, and set it all back up again many times......even ran through it again earlier. The end result is that calls on the iPad work fine when the iPhone is switched on, but not when it's switched off. The mac, on the other hand, can make calls through wifi whether the phone is on or not.

Chris_B · ‎01-12-2022

@ventmore If you have one device working there is no reason a different device will not work. EE only support the feature it’s an Apple service via your iCloud account. See THIS

Can you try a location reset on the device.

stoli412 · ‎02-12-2022

@Chris_B It simply DOES NOT WORK. The settings are all set correctly, and no amount of resetting devices has ever helped. EE won't even entertain the possibility there could be a configuration error somewhere in our accounts or in EE's systems in general.

But then again, EE said the same thing when it was widely reported that Alexa integration was broken, and then it suddenly started working again a few months later. Yes, it must have been all our Alexa devices that were misconfigured the whole time.... *sarcasm* 🙄

ventmore · ‎02-12-2022

I was testing my 3 macs last night...just to make sure they're all still working, and it turns out one of them, my newest mac, isn't. It seems to work, FaceTime makes a fake ringing sound, but doesn't actually end up connecting. My other 2 macs are still working fine.

I'm not sure if this'll point us in the right direction, but the 2 macs that work are the oldest of the 4 devices (3 macs, 1 iPad Pro), and were the first to be registered for wifi calling. The iPad is a few years old and has never worked, and the other mac was bought last year and also doesn't work.

So, I'm wondering if I'm hitting some kind of hard limit, or if maybe "new" devices aren't provisioning correctly through EE. To be clear, I only have 5 devices showing in the "Allow calls on" list on my iPhone...and only 4 of them were selected...including the 2 that aren't working. I have since deselected all devices, and just deselected the iPad Pro (with a reboot in between), but it still doesn't work.

stoli412 · ‎02-12-2022

It's only ever half-worked on my Mac. Whilst I can place calls without my iPhone being switched on, if I go into the Mac's FaceTime settings and click on 'Update Emergency Address' I get a pop-up that says 'To allow Wi-Fi calls on this account, contact your network provider'. To me that strongly suggests something is misconfigured on EE's end. But why it half-works on the Mac and not at all on the iPad is a mystery.

Interesting idea about hitting some kind of hard device limit. I only have 2 devices showing on my iPhone...my Mac and my iPad.

Leanne_T · ‎02-12-2022

Hi @ventmore @stoli412

Thanks for coming to the community.

Please get in touch with our tech gurus on 150, they will run through some troubleshooting and be able to get this looked into further for you both.

Leanne.

stoli412 · ‎02-12-2022

@Leanne_T I've been on with the 'tech gurus' (a misnomer if I've ever heard one) multiple times about this issue. All they do is read their troubleshooting scripts, and when they get to the end and realise everything is as it should be they insist the problem is the iPhone/iPad/Mac itself or it's a problem with Apple's systems or -- even worse -- that iPads and Macs don't support Smart Numbers / Wi-Fi Calling. No one has ever been willing to investigate the issue further or escalate it to someone who knows what they're talking about. EE simply don't care. And frankly, I don't have anymore time to waste talking to 150, and that's why I've given up getting it resolved.