Are all unlocked phones hardwired to specific carriers for wifi?

  • Thread starter Android Central Question
  • Start date
A

Android Central Question

Moto g7 power refuses wifi calling unless sim removed. Motorola says all g7 power hardwired to T-Mobile for wifi calling, & further every single cell phone in creation is hardwired to one carrier only for wifi calling. Not what I signed up for when buying unlocked phone. If they can program phone to interact with one sim for wifi, they ought to program them to communicate with all providers' sims. Any knowledge out there, please?
 

B. Diddy

Senior Ambassador
Moderator
Mar 9, 2012
165,280
4,389
113
Visit site
Welcome to Android Central! It's clearly not true that all phones are hardwired to only one carrier for wi-fi calling, since Pixels can do wi-fi calling on any network. Was your G7 Power originally from a carrier, and then was unlocked? Or did you get it directly from Moto?

Please register on this forum, which will allow you to engage in discussion more easily, as well as post images. https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/409154-join-android-central-community.html
 

hallux

Q&A Team
Jul 7, 2013
12,322
7
38
Visit site
It should also be noted that some carriers may only allow WiFi calling on their plans if the phone was bought from them. I think AT&T and T-Mobile have been known to do this.
 

Smokeaire01

Well-known member
Jul 3, 2015
1,690
2
38
Visit site
It should also be noted that some carriers may only allow WiFi calling on their plans if the phone was bought from them. I think AT&T and T-Mobile have been known to do this.
My Pixel 4a was able to do wifi calling with my ATT account. My wife's P4a couldn't. That's the main reason we switched to Google Fi.
 

VidJunky

Well-known member
Dec 6, 2011
5,582
364
83
Visit site
With Verizon I had issues with WiFi calling on unlocked units until reaching a number of days of the device being on my Verizon plan. I think it was 60days before it was unlocked...?


Moto g7 power refuses wifi calling unless sim removed.

Carriers have a way of blocking features on devices, even ones that are not branded by them just by having their SIM in the device. There was a famous case not long ago, wish I could remember the device, where Verizon had disabled the FM receiver in a device. For some reason one of the big things about the device, or maybe there was a popular app at the time, was the FM receiver. People who switched carriers were able to use the receiver if they switched to another carrier's SIM. The receiver was built into the device but Verizon just locked it.

Not sure how long you've had the device but it could be like my experience with Big Red and just a matter of time before they unlock the feature or it could just be being blocked. Especially with unlocked devices carriers seem to penalize customers for not going with their brand locking. Again using Verizon as an example, they made it so without the Verizon branded software, and again I don't remember the device, customers couldn't Hotspot to other phones. You could Hotspot to a laptop, maybe even a tab, but the protocol needed to allow a phone to phone connection was disabled. This was probably when they charged for Hotspot.

Your best bet is to try and find out T-mo's policy for unlocked devices.