Understanding VoLTE and its implications.
Hi everyone,
There is a lot of information going around about VoLTE and we think it's important that we clarify a few things.
The importance of VoLTE.
The 3G network used for calls across Canada is set to disappear in the near future, as is currently the case in the United States. With VoLTE technology, the ability to make calls will depend on two things: your SIM card and your phone.
Your phone.
A VoLTE certified phone is not necessarily certified with every mobile service provider. The only official list of phones* that are certified VoLTE with Fizz can be found here: https://fizz.ca/en/faq/compatible-devices#3
*If your phone is not on the Fizz list, don't panic.
You can keep using your phone until the 3G network withdraws, but just keep in mind you will eventually have to change it.
Your SIM card.
A VoLTE compatible SIM card shows a red lightning bolt icon. For the mobile members who currently do NOT have a SIM card with a red lightning bolt, we’re currently making sure that each of them gets a free VoLTE compatible SIM card. Invitations are being sent out in batches, so no worries if you haven’t got yours yet.
We get all of this may be overwhelming and even frustrating. It’s a bumpy road for everyone and helping our Fizz members through this transition is a priority for everyone on our team.
We’ll continue to inform you and update our VoLTE FAQ. Thank you for your patience and collaboration 💚
The Fizz team.
Comments
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thank you for the explanations
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These are the same information that we can have from the FAQ
- Fizz is planning to certify other brands such OnePlus, UMIDIGI and similar? And why no if it is the case. (in this post you wrote don't panic you can still use the 3G, you didn't say we certify the majority of the phone or similar)
- When the 3G will be disappeared in Canada? Or better when Fizz will drop the 3G?
- What Fizz is planning to do with the new customer that they don't have a certified phone? Think about a customer which transferred the number
- Why Fizz thinks that this post will clarify the point to me it is similar to the FAQ
Sorry but I like to say the real things
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I have a question, why a mobile provider will certify the phone A and not the phone B?
For sure, Fizz will not have all the model to test them?
Fizz need to buy a certificate or similar or is the other way around, therefore, the company must pay something to Fizz?
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I could be wrong but if we trust the youtubeur his telephone companies must pay
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I think to know the answers but I would like to have the official answer
since I would like to help the user, and if I say something I do because I believe on it and I can backup what I am wetting and not because I copied a FAQ the sometime they don’t reflects the reality
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Indeed, this post is not providing answers to the questions that many users are asking.
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Eventually they will have to be changed, the transition is in progress!
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I have a galaxy s10, and on the web it says that the phone is compatible with VoLTE, why isn't it supported by Fizz?
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Hi, i ordered my new volte SIM card 2 weeks ago but it doesn't appear in my order history, where can i track it to know when it will arrive? Thanks!
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Wondering this too! My phone is compatible with Volte but it's not in the list, so will it just stop working eventually???
The list supported by Fizz only has 5 companies, which is very few and doesn't take into account many other smaller brands like LG, oneplus, Huawei etc. which is really unfortunate 😔
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be patient. just got mine today. had to wait for more than 2 weeks !
there is no way to track the sim card as stated by fizz support team. check your mailbox everyday.
regarding the order history, make sure you go to My Settings at the bottom of the page , next to logout then go to Transaction History.
see enclosed pic here :
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So @Whizz you didn't really clarify the main concerns of all the users here. Especially those who haven't been migrated yet to volte, or those who have a compatible phone who hasn't been certified yet... This sounds to me like "we certified those phones and if don't have one of those we don't care and you have to buy a new one sooner or later, and you better do that from our store so it's surely certified". You always said that you are working to certify more and more phones but the list you keep posting is always the same. How come? I hope to receive real clarifications in the future!
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So we do have to switch?
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I did the steps out of order and removed my old sim before I inserted the new one. I hope this doesn't become an issue down the road? I turned on my device with the new sim and it seems to be working...
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yeah hopefully it doesn't become a recurrent issue...
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I just wanted to say it is totally bs to have a list of certified compatible phones. It should just matter if your phone has the hardware or not. Period.
Why force people to change perfectly functioning phones in a year or two because of some arbitrary certified list?
Oh yeah I forgot. Planned obsolescence right?
You should at least remove the green in your colours.
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For one, I NEVER RECEIVED an email informing me about voLTE. For another, once I had a voLTE SIM card installed, NOTHING SHOWS UP on my IPhone7 (which IS compatible)! I have complained twice to Fizz about this ans STILL am unable to USE the service for which I PAY FOR (Canada/US)!!! This time, Fizz mentioned it was MY PHONE and after spending 3 hours w/Apple on the phone, they tell me IT IS Fizz! So for the third time, I go through the CHAT line (and you have to waste your time every time starting from the beginning!!) and now they FINALLY put out a SECOND SERVICE TICKET which is supposed to appear on my account. After 2 days, NOTHING APPEARS AND NO CONTACT FROM FIZZ SERVICE!!!! BOTTOM LINE: I have PAID for a service since the beginning and THROUGH NO FAULT OF MINE, I CAN'T USE IT! CRAP, PURE CRAP! Gilles Larin
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For some reason Fizz decided to not provision the iPhone7, they certified only starting from the iPhone 8
therefore they will not send you the configuration to use the VoLTE on your phone
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That's BS! Fizz already approved my IPhone 7 and never mentioned anything to the contrary!
Here's an excerpt from FIZZ:
List of phones certified VoLTE with Fizz
Apple
- iPhone 7 and 7 plus
- iPhone 8 and 8 plus
- iPhone X
- iPhone XS and XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2nd and 3rd generation)
- iPhone 12 mini, 12, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 13 mini, 13, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max
CHECK YOUR FACTS!!!
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Sorry I was remember differently
therefore must work
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It does not!!!
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Sorry to hear that
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Hi, I received my new SIM card and Activated it but there is no Red Lightening Bolt on my phone. I have a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE. Does that mean there is something wrong with the SIM card?
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Red Lightening Bolt should be on your SIM card, not on your phone.
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Thanks for the explanation, all good with my iPhone 12 mini.
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Red bolt should be on the sim card... not on the phone
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That's crazy!!! Keep insisting on that.. don't give up!
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Thanks for clearing that up.
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I have the feeling the VoLTE issue will hit the roof when 3G will in fact start to be switched off in Canada. And really the Competition Bureau Canada should start getting involved as of now, because it will probably take some time to have this issue fixed.
The problem, as we all know, is that many phones are VoLTE-capable, but in order for them to work with a specific provider they need to have some specific settings in their operating system, and these settings at the moment are "under the hood", therefore not accessible by the standard user.
Providers need to understand which settings need to be modified in each phone they want to support, test them, and then provide them to the manufacturers that can include them in the updates to their operating system. I know some providers are sending text messages that can make the ad-hoc update, but that still requires a set of test to have been performed on the specific model.
Obviously, providers have limited resources and testing ALL models currently on the market is neither possible nor economically feasible, so they focus on the models and manufacturers that deliver the biggest bang for their buck. At the same time, manufacturers do not have the bandwidth or the inclination to support ALL the cell phone service providers around the world (or in the markets they intend to serve), so they focus on the operators that deliver the largest number of customers.
This is all understandable, but it is a significant hurdle for competition. In fact, at the moment it is not possible to the highest degree of certainty if a customer wishing to switch from one provider to another will be able to keep using their handset. And this is a major deterrent for anyone considering to move to another provider.
However the obstacle seems to be more artificial than anything else - the legislator should impose cross compatibility to service providers and manufacturers alike, making sure the settings of each handset can be modified with relative ease. Since all countries would eventually need to go through the same 3G switch-off, I believe the process of imposing conditions for cross-compatibility will gather speed as more markets are going to face the same issue, especially markets where the legislator has a much heavier hand than it happens in Canada, where company can essentially do whatever they like.
So fasten your seat belts, because we are just at the beginning of this ride.
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I think and hope you are right!
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- This information is exactly what I needed. Thank you for your generosity and support.
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how do I transfer my fizz phone number on my new sims card in my new phone?
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If you received the free SIM card, you need to follow the instructions received by email and on the letter
if you bought a new SIM card you need to contact the customer service
You can chat in direct
• Sign into your account
• Follow the link on this page: https://fizz.ca/en/faq/im-unable-log-my-fizz-account-what-do-i-do
• Wait 3 seconds for the green bubble with a '❔' appears at the bottom right of the browser, if you use a phone you must use it in desktop or horizontal mode
• Choose the option 💬 chat
• If the green bubble does not appear make sure your ad blocker is disabled, otherwise try with another browser.
Or by private message on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fizzca/
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They have to update the software on their end as well to support it
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Hi all, I'd just like a sanity check to make sure I have everything ready.
I have an iPhone SE 2nd gen, which is on Fizz's supported list. I have a SIM that I got in May 2022, which is past the date when, from what I understand, all new SIMs sent to new customers are already VoLTE enabled. When I go into the iOS options, I can see and I can enable the option for VoLTE.
The only hiccup is that, when I do, I get a message saying "This cellular network has not been verified by the carrier for VoLTE on iPhone. Battery life, calls, text messages, voicemail, and cellular data may be affected." It still turns on though. I sent some texts, used my data, made a call, everything seems to work... I think? Is there any way to actually check if VoLTE is really enabled and being used? Is this message a generic warning because reasons but if everything is working then I'm ok?
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The easiest way to check it is to disable WiFi and to make a call. If during the call it stays on LTE/4G you are good to go.
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Which iOS version do you have on your iPhone? If you didn’t update recently, you may have an older carrier profile for Fizz…
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I have indeed skipped some recent updates. I'll try Andrei's idea of calling and checking what it's on (I keep forgetting to look every time I make a call!) and if it goes to 3G then I guess it's time to update iOS and hope it doesn't kill my battery consumption this time (I had this problem happen badly with my previous iPhone).
Thank you both for the replies.
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Doesnt make sense that FIzz needs to test each phone to make sure it works with VoLTE? !
If the manufacturer says its compliant eg Samsung, then why must they test each model phone?
The VoLTE protocol should not change form model to model. I have a S9+ that works well & is VoLTE complaint according to Samsung. Fizz only displays newer model phones & I will not buy a new phone just for that. There should be 1 certificate per manufacturer not per model.
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Thank you for the info.0
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The VoLTE thing look very complicated. I think it's because every network has it's own parameters that need to be written in each phone software. I got a Oneplus before and on a redit forum they give tricks to make the phone Volte compatible by modify some system files and the mods depend of the country and provider.
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Usually that modification need a phone to be rooted, it was that the case?
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the future is here
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Thanks for your explanation.
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I also have a iPhone SE 2nd Edition (2020). I'm on iOS 16.6, no issue. It's not like 10 years ago when each new iPhone was like 100x faster than previous ones. Just keep in mind the first days after the upgrade are not the best indicator of battery life, as there is a lot of indexing happening in the background, specially if you have a lot of pictures.
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Thanks for such detailed information.
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Seemless transition for me - all worked well.
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That's was much-needed explicationsso thank you
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Just wanted to post to thank you, it seems that VoLTEis indeed working on my phone! I called with and without the option enabled, when it's off it switches to 3G, when it's on it stays on LTE as you described. Looks like I'm ready! Thanks again Andrei.
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