Hi Ads,
Well sometimes...
At least the convo yesterday got me out of the house. The agreed plan, I believe, was that I was to go into 4G coverage area at a certain time and I would be called. We agreed to the time, and I provided a 'sync' time - that being the time I believed it to be where I was now - to ensure timezone offsets etc. were all calculated correctly. The agreed time for the call, I thought, was 1PM (13:00) and the time the agreement / sync was made was 4:30PM (16:30) and that the call would be made onto my Pixel 3 XL phone.
So I drove 50km down the road, and along the way used some apps to track cell status and the like. And sure enough, at the first town I hit my Galaxy Tab A8 was getting 4G LTE signal, but the Pixel was only getting H+. Weird, I thought. I also noticed in the app (Network Cell Info - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wilysis.cellinfo&hl=en ) that the Galaxy Tab was indicating VoLTE and WiFi Calling capabilities, and the Pixel 3 XL as not offering those services.
So I drove a bit further down the road to the coast, and got a 4G signal on both. And both indicated VolTE and WiFi Calling capabilities.
To be sure, I sat down for lunch at 1pm and made a WiFi Call to my friend over the Telstra Air connection at the cafe I was at. And then I waited for Telstra to call.
An hour later and no word from the Telstra person who I expected a call from, I decided I'd do a bit of scientific sleuthing.
I drove back up the road and used that app to tell me when I lost signal. Sure enough, it seemed that as I dropped into H+ out of LTE, the phone indicate that VoLTE wasn't available. Well that made sense to me, as VoLTE requires LTE.
Then I thought - hang on, I had H+ on the way in and WiFi calling didn't become available to me. So therefore, the workaround must be to get in LTE range - drop the phone into flight mode - then head on off to my WiFi access point.
I did this and Lo And Behold, WiFi calling is working at the location I am at.
Unfortunately, I fear if I take my phone out of flight mode to try to get into H+ range nearby to receive SMS I'll lose my ability to go back to WiFi Calling (I can receive SMS within walking distance of where I am, not so much usable H+ voice let alone LTE).
The upshot would seem to be that there's a problem with the latest Google Android. And it also exists on the Pixel 2 XL as well as this had also previously been tested by me and was found similarly non-functional at my location.
The issue is that the phone, for one reason or another, 'forgets' that it on a VoLTE capable account. Whether this is because the phone itself forgets that, as it changes from LTE to H+, the account is VoLTE permitted or the base station it is talking to as it does that handover fails to notify the handset of VoLTE access on the account, I dunno. Don't have the depth of knowledge or the debug tools to tell.
Anyways, I was pretty happy with my For Science!! expedition even if Telstra didn't call as organised. Or that I can't receive SMS for the local injured wildlife rescue service. So at this I wandered off to do a few things.
I came back to my Galaxy Tablet at about 16:45, and noticed that someone had tried calling me at 16:30. I presume that was Telstra Support. I also got an email thanking me for my interaction today. Not sure I have the energy, but I did certainly want to write down the adventure today.
tl:dr - likely bug in Google Android for Telstra Pixel Phones with WiFi Calling. When in 3G only zone, handset doesn't know it can do WiFi calling. If moving from 4G to 3G zone, handset forgets it can do WiFi calling. Workaround: Go into 4G zone, when heading out of 4G area set to Flight Mode (Aeroplane mode), re-enable radios (bluetooth, wifi etc.) as required but DO NOT turn back on the mobile phone capability.
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