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> Many carriers only permit VoLTE and VoWiFi on devices they sell or have officially tested. Does this happen even if you are using a carrier's SIM card; it's

> Many carriers only permit VoLTE and VoWiFi on devices they sell or have officially tested. Does this happen even if you are using a carrier's SIM card; it's just because you didn't buy the hardware from them? It's not just an IMEI-level block so data still works?

nagisa 1y ago
No, this is not really tied to whom you purchased the Pixel from. But it is tied to which carriers would sell you a Pixel at all. Meaning they have some sort of an agreement with Google and Google added configuration files whitelisting these features for the carrier in question. (At least for many EU based carriers.)
numpad0 1y ago
VoLTE was an afterthought and carriers don't trust untested vanilla implementations. So they only allow known-good phones.
- cortesoft 1y ago
  Ok, but why block VoWiFi?
  - tsimionescu 1y ago
    That still uses their infrastructure at some point, as you are still using your carrier's phone number when you make a VoWiFi call.
    - notpushkin 1y ago
      Yeah, but what’s the problem they’re trying to avoid? Bad SIP implementation not working with their servers? Just text the user: “Hey, you’re using an unsupported VoWiFi stack, if it breaks – that’s on you.”
      - numpad0 1y ago
        "That's on you" is not something that works at cellular scale. You're going to end up fighting some mafia scheme microcosm forming around that little thing.
      - tsimionescu 1y ago
        I don't know, and I haven't seen any explanation either, malicious or otherwise.
  - mananaysiempre 1y ago
    From what (little) I understand, VoLTE and VoWiFi are quite similar under the hood—VoLTE is more or less SIP, and VoWiFi is that same SIP over IPsec. You see how this would be an interoperability nightmare (not that I’m excusing the telecom people for getting us into this mess). Furthermore, some carriers get testy about you avoiding roaming charges by using VoWiFi (while others actually encourage it).

nagisa 1y ago

No, this is not really tied to whom you purchased the Pixel from. But it is tied to which carriers would sell you a Pixel at all. Meaning they have some sort of an agreement with Google and Google added configuration files whitelisting these features for the carrier in question. (At least for many EU based carriers.)

numpad0 1y ago

VoLTE was an afterthought and carriers don't trust untested vanilla implementations. So they only allow known-good phones.

cortesoft 1y ago
Ok, but why block VoWiFi?
- tsimionescu 1y ago
  That still uses their infrastructure at some point, as you are still using your carrier's phone number when you make a VoWiFi call.
  - notpushkin 1y ago
    Yeah, but what’s the problem they’re trying to avoid? Bad SIP implementation not working with their servers? Just text the user: “Hey, you’re using an unsupported VoWiFi stack, if it breaks – that’s on you.”
    - numpad0 1y ago
      "That's on you" is not something that works at cellular scale. You're going to end up fighting some mafia scheme microcosm forming around that little thing.
    - tsimionescu 1y ago
      I don't know, and I haven't seen any explanation either, malicious or otherwise.
- mananaysiempre 1y ago
  From what (little) I understand, VoLTE and VoWiFi are quite similar under the hood—VoLTE is more or less SIP, and VoWiFi is that same SIP over IPsec. You see how this would be an interoperability nightmare (not that I’m excusing the telecom people for getting us into this mess). Furthermore, some carriers get testy about you avoiding roaming charges by using VoWiFi (while others actually encourage it).