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Over a dozen T-Mobile devices will no longer support Wi-Fi calling after May 31st, 2021. The company is sending out text messages informing its subscribers of this upcoming shutdown.
Now, in case you’re wondering, let us inform you that this shutdown only affects some older Android and Windows devices. Those include Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S III LTE, Galaxy Exhibit, and Galaxy Avant, LG’s Optimus L70 and Optimus L90, Alcatel’s One Touch Pop Astro and Fierce 2, the Microsoft Lumia 640, Google Nexus 6, and the ZTE Obsidian.
In technical terms, these devices only support Wi-Fi calling 1.0. Introduced in 2015, it is a fairly old standard. It has been replaced by newer Wi-Fi 2.0 or later standards in recent devices. T-Mobile says the cellular industry is scrapping support for version 1.0 of Wi-Fi calling altogether. As such, the company is moving on from the older Wi-Fi calling standard as well. This change won’t impact devices that boast support for Wi-Fi Calling 2.0 or later.
“There have been updates to the technology used to make voice calls over Wi-Fi that have made the original 1.0 version obsolete. To continue to improve the network experience for customers and stay on the cutting edge of voice technology we need to decommission the 1.0 technology,” T-Mobile said.
Some older mobile devices are losing Wi-Fi calling on T-Mobile
To be fair to T-Mobile, these are some pretty old devices and not many users would be still holding on to one. So it makes sense for the company to stop supporting the Wi-Fi calling feature on these devices.
Nonetheless, if you own any of the above listed 13 devices and use it as your daily driver, be informed that your phone will lose Wi-Fi calling capabilities on T-Mobile’s network as of June 1st. This applies to T-Mobile, T-Mobile Prepaid, and Metro by T-Mobile. Of course, you can still make calls via the cellular network. This change won’t impact data access over Wi-Fi either. So you can use Wi-Fi on these phones to surf the internet as well. Just that these phones can no longer make voice calls over Wi-Fi.
If you use one of the affected devices and rely on Wi-Fi calling, you might want to upgrade to a newer phone right away. However, you shouldn’t be expecting any sort of relief from T-Mobile in terms of upgrades though. In fact, the company points you to its Simple Global international travel amenities for cost-effective calls to the US.
Available with select plans, T-Mobile’s Simple Global feature lets users make low-cost calls to the US when traveling abroad. It also offers unlimited data and texting without any setup or roaming charges.