VoLTE support progress

Hardware Librem 5
282

I keep learning every day. Many thanks.

283

i have been trying for several weeks now to get a meaningful answer from the telekom germany service.
In the end, it now says that they have no special requirements and there is no whitelist.

But I donā€™t know how much I would trust them. Iā€™m probably only up to first level, maximum second level support.

I am a little frustrated.

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284

You know, I was getting funny behavior from my modem so I contacted purism support. Turns out my modem had the wrong firmware flashed to it. or something wasnā€™t right about the firmware. Purism sent out a replacement modem under warranty, and enabled VoLTE for it. Once I got it, I had to run install a package they sent me a link to and then VoLTE works beautifully.

So, maybe you do have a hardware problem?

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285

So I finally filed an issue about non-working VoLTE with Deutsche Telekom in Germany: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/OS-issues/-/issues/299

If you are within Deutsche Telekom network it would be nice, if you could report your current state with VoLTE to this bug report :slight_smile:

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286

Can I gladly fill out the bugreport however I already had contact with the support.

@zks1 I assume you are not with telekom germany or?
I also got a replaced modem and email support.

287

correct Iā€™m in US.

288

I too had success getting VoLTE calls working, following these instructions for support:

Iā€™m in the U.S. using carrier Consumer Cellular, on the AT&T network.

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289

Iā€™ve added your results to: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Cellular-Providers

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290

Hello. I just wanted to let everyone know who didnā€™t know that VoLTE works well for Mint (T-Mobile mvno), for me, in the United States. Could you update https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Cellular-Providers ?

Also, thank for the instructions Laubster. Awesome.

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291

Iā€™m not sure about Mint. but, as a direct T-Mobile customer, the VoLTE works really nice for me. Even from my basement, I can make calls and hear well. There can be some latency, so you both canā€™t speak simultaneously. the once call where I was having a problem with that, I didnā€™t try to leave my basement to see if that would make a difference. But, overall, phones calls have been great.

I do still encounter the modem suddenly disconnecting at times. and, it is problematic for me to use VPN and the suspend mode together. So, I donā€™t use the suspend mode yet. Waiting for more improvements on the suspend (resume from suspend more specifically) before Iā€™ll use it.

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292

Did you apply bm818-tools_beta_arm64.deb? I am on Mint (T-Mobile) and 2G coverage in my area is only slightly worse than 4G coverage. In fact, the call quality on the L5 is so much better than it was on my PinePhone (and the automatic audio switching works!) that I donā€™t think I care about 4G so much ā€“ at least for now. But if you had a good experience with the beta tool, I feel better about applying it when I decide to.

293

Hi. Yes, I am using that tool. It has greatly improved call quality in MOST areas. I am happy with that. However, I did want to note that I have a antenna booster at home due to poor cell coverage. I am not sure, but it does not seem to be playing well with the after-market booster. More experimenting is in order.

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294

Was it better before you enabled volte?

295

Hello:

  1. For non-booster use the VoLTE enabled has definitely made call quality better.

  2. For the booster use at home: I am not sure yet. It seems to be conflicting with it a bit. The cell coverage may have been better prior to enabling VoLTE. I might have to admit that it is worse at home with the booster. But I havenā€™t really played with it a lot at home yet.

The calls are clearer overall with VoLTE enabled. I believe I have less dropped calls as well, overall.

I believe I read that VoLTE only works with 4g or 5g? My cell coverage at home is often 3g or even 2g. That is likely the issue.

296

You would need to know what ā€œGā€ and what band is being boosted. It would be possible, yes, that with a booster (or even without a booster), enabling VoLTE would result in poorer call quality at your home. You could investigate that (maybe) by forcing the Librem 5 to a specific ā€œGā€ in turn and then looking at the signal strength.

It is unfortunate that VoLTE can only be enabled / disabled in the modem with a reboot - because otherwise it would make sense to have the Librem 5 disable VoLTE automatically when you get home and enable it automatically when you leave home.

(If you have decent internet at home that is not via the mobile network then a fun future option for you could be ā€œWiFi callingā€.)

It is stronger than that. The ā€œLTEā€ in ā€œVoLTEā€ means 4G.

The point is that when 4G was introduced for data, calls were still made over 3G or even 2G - so the phone would drop down one or even two generations each time a call was made or received. VoLTE is an attempt to unify voice and data (which has several advantages, technical and financial), thereby allowing the 3G and 2G networks to be shut down, and the frequencies reallocated.

(I donā€™t have 5G available to me yet but I would be highly confident that 5G isnā€™t going backwards in this regard. That is, if you were in an area with 5G and no 4G then VoLTE would mean ā€œvoice over 5Gā€ - even though VoLTE in that case is technically a misnomer. However there would be very few places in the entire world, if any, that have 5G and no 4G, yet.)

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297

Great reply. Thank you.

My booster at home boosts 2g, 3g, and 4g. I think that must be the issue. If I am following your reasoning, because VoLTE is on 4g, when I enable VoLTE at home, with the booster, I cannot connect to 2g or 3g. Because the signal is not great for any of the ā€œgā€™sā€, I am limiting myself to only the 4g ā€œboostā€. I am therefore missing out on calling on 2g and 3g when VoLTE is enabled.

The good news is that I can simply ā€œdisableā€ the VoLTE with the tool.

I am going to experiment more. I am happy with enabling VoLTE for Mint, in total.

298

Yep

Yep.

You also need to check into what specific bands, for the 4G in particular, are involved in the boosting - and check that against the bands supported by the modem variant that you have. I would assume that itā€™s OK but ā€¦

Doesnā€™t that require a reboot though?

(Presumably this could be fixed in the BM818 if the manufacturer saw fit. I guess, however, manufacturers envisage a time in the near to medium term future when VoLTE is the only option, so the ability to enable and disable dynamically has limited applicability. I know that, in my country, mobile service providers are busily improving 4G coverage and signal strength, in anticipation of switching off 3G in the medium term. 2G was switched off a few years ago.)

299

Great comments. I hope someone else, other than me, finds this useful. Yes, I believe I have to reboot, but doing that once when I get home from work isnā€™t really a big deal.

Really digging the updates that keep popping up for the this phone. I like to tinker, though.

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300

Voice over NR (VoNR) technology, also known as Voice over 5G (Vo5G). Voice calls and SMS require VoNR (Vo5G) in standalone 5G (5G SA) and VoLTE in non-standalone 5G (5G NSA). My carrier Tmobile USA is getting ready to fully roll that out soon.

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301

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_NR Thats whats used with 5G my carrier Tmobile USA is rolling it out