WIFI Calling Preferences Being Forced to Cellular Preferred

WiFi calling and HD calling rolled out on Sprint before my GS8 replaced my GS3, and it worked flawlessly. Handoff from my killer WiFi to cellular & back no problem, ever. Even in my expanded-wire plaster, wire & lathe walls (1940's) WiFi calling gave me HD calls all over the house …

… now disabled, a phone means life even more than the 'maybe I need 911' of years past. The merge got me my first T-Mobile SIM -- and bad WiFi calling, so I went back to the Sprint network, until I had to go to a new T-Mobile SIM -- WiFi calling was improved … but I'm now in 'preferences' v. 'settings' land like most every post here. Been to tech support -- forced to the Sprint side. Pushed to buy a phone at every turn, go to iOS, completely migrate to a T-Mobile account … get a Cell Spot.

No reason to expand TMo's 4G-LTE by giving them free data, free run of my LAN, and free power, for an unregulated, unlicensed, cell tower, which will shut down as soon as power fails. I currently do better with my Ooma VoIP setup.

In my case, TMo 4G LTE is usable 1 meter inside the house, entering from the east (front). The middle is a 4G dead zone. The north window in my office can see 5 bars of ATT 4G LTE and tries to use it - but the power drops to minimum necessary, saving bandwidth, triggering a switch back to WiFi -- after a few rounds of WiFi/AT&T ping-pong -- all cell connectivity is broken, and my number is "unknown" to all callers -- no texts, no voice mail , no calls, in or out -- but I can still browse the web just fine -- I must restart my phone to restore service.

Done the support orbit for two weeks -- same exact story as everyone else.

I suspect that Samsung struck a data deal with TMo, that must use cellular data to satisfy, because if it used WiFi, it would be trivial to snoop and see what’s being forwarded … if this hypothetical is in any way correct, we’ll be very unhappy with such a dark alliance.

So, TMo and AT&T are not playing well together --- but what can you do?

This is a patch - it's ugly - but it will keep you online and able to use 911 in an emergency, without a restart and a password. Three steps:

1. settings→connections→WiFi→[three-vertical-dots, upper right]→advanced→switch to cellular→off

Now, go someplace where you do have TMo coverage, or this will glitch.

2. settings→connections→mobile networks
   1. verify that T-Mobile is the Network Operator
   2. set it manually if you must
   3. Data roaming→off

Último paso

3. settings→connections→data usage→mobile data→ off

With those 3 settings in place, my GS8 now pesters me relentlessly with a system dialog asking for permission to search for a better data connection -- why my WiFi isn’t ‘supremely endowed enough’ for their liking is impossible to fathom without considering hypothetical situations such as those expressed as my personal opinion above.

I'll happily ignore and cancel a fast system dialog that self cancels as you type a text or e-mail. Far less painful than 6 reboots on a Sunday afternoon. It keeps me from getting kicked to the curb by AT&T, which clearly does not approve of playing ping-pong - it's a waste of cellular setup resources - the most expensive connection in the game - no wonder they kicked my T-Mobile data-roaming to the curb.

Side note, the phone won’t scan for other Cellular Data networks if it’s connected to one, so this happens only in fringe cases and ‘sturdy’ construction -- and no, 28GHz and 39GHz 5G won’t do any better - it will do far worse - you’d need 100GHz to walk through the mesh in my walls, unscathed.

I’m unhappy, have been disrespected, and unacknowledged.

I'm patched well enough for now -- but it's not a solution. As far as I'm concerned, I'll let the US DOJ have an image of my phone's firmware …