From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

Chris Green wrote:

Your tablet can
use 4G data but can't make 4G calls.

Many tablets can't make calls at all (even when they were 3G and the 3G networks were still running).

Last time I was paying attention (a while back) Samsung tablets were capable
of making phone calls, while other brands weren't. I don't know if this is universal or if it's been dropped from more recent models.

Theo
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On 2026-02-13 22:01, Theo wrote:

Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

Chris Green wrote:

Your tablet can
use 4G data but can't make 4G calls.

Many tablets can't make calls at all (even when they were 3G and the 3G
networks were still running).

Last time I was paying attention (a while back) Samsung tablets were capable of making phone calls, while other brands weren't. I don't know if this is universal or if it's been dropped from more recent models.

Yes, for some time it was my only phone, but I bought a Pixel 8a a
little before the local 2/3G was removed thus disabling the Samsung.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Theo <[email protected]> wrote:

Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

Chris Green wrote:

Your tablet can
use 4G data but can't make 4G calls.

Many tablets can't make calls at all (even when they were 3G and the 3G networks were still running).

Last time I was paying attention (a while back) Samsung tablets were capable of making phone calls, while other brands weren't. I don't know if this is universal or if it's been dropped from more recent models.

My no-name tablet is perfectly capable of making phone calls on 2G and
3G. I can also use 4G data.
--
Chris Green
·
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:38:17 +0000, Chris Green wrote:

Arno Welzel <[email protected]> wrote:

Chris Green, 2026-02-12 12:38:

Arno Welzel <[email protected]> wrote:

Chris Green, 2026-02-12 09:38:

Arno Welzel <[email protected]> wrote:

Chris Green, 2026-02-11 21:48:

This is suddenly becoming more impportant now that 3G is rapidly
disappearing. My 'no name' tablet used to work fine at home but
now it doesn't. We used to have good 3G coverage here, what we
have now is mediocre 4G and my tablet can't do VoLTE with my
provider anyway,

Being a cheapskate and not being a big mobile/cell user I don't
want to spend hundreds of pounds on a new device just to ba able
to make phone calls. My £99 10" tablet is excellent in every way
except for its lack of VoLTE support on my (very cheap!)
provider.

At Amazon you find cheap 4G phones starting around £40. Of course
these are then only feature phones and not Android based devices.
But for the specific need to be able to do phone calls, that
should be sufficient.

... and they almost certainly won't do VoLTE or VoWiFi will they?
They certainly aren't listed as such by any of the providers I've
looked at?

Without VoLTE these phones wouldn't work at all in modern networks,
since GSM is switched off already in many countries and 4G/5G is the
only option left.

Exactly!!! They wont work. They'll access 4G data (what for?) and
that will be about it. Actually most of them will probably provide
calls and SMS using 2G won't they?

No. Supporting VoLTE is *required* in 4G and not an option. Without
VoLTE you can not do phone calls at all in a 4G network.

?? "Supporting VoLTE is *required* in 4G". No it's not, that's the whole problem. There are lots and lots of phones out there (I have two) which support 4G but can't make calls using 4G. All that 4G is useful for on
these phones is for data, i.e. internet browsing and such.

"Without VoLTE you can not do phone calls at all in a 4G network", you
said it! :-)

All the 'simple 4G phones' that I can see on Amazon have 2G coverage as
well so, almost certainly, that's how they make phone calls. I even
found a review of one of them that said exactly that, although the phone claimed to be 4G it only actually worked for making phone calls using
2G.

[...]

work as well, if not better. The reality of VoLTE is that it works
for some phones on some services and it's not all the same phones on
all services. A buyer shoud be able to buy a 4G phone and expect it
to work on 4G, except that he needs to know that 4G capability
doesn't mean tha ability to make phone calls (a bit fundamental for a
phone I would have thought!). Even if the buyer knows that VoLTE is
needed then it's still pot luck, a phone that is VoLTE capable
**may** work with a provider of VoLTE service but there's no
certainty about it.

Then give the phone back if it does not work and get another one. You
can send the phones back to Amazon if they don't work as expected.

Yes, but one could go through a heck of a lot of wasted time buying and returning phones. Without any clear guidance as to which '4G' phones
will actually be able to make phone calls it's a minefield.

It's worse than that.

I have a phone which provides VoLTE calling on Tesco (on the back of O2)
but won't provide VoLTE on any other major carrier although it will
provide 4G data (which I use for web surfineg etc. when away from home).

I am told that Android 12 sorted most of this out with a rewrite of the
stack, but I am stuck on Android 11.

So for the moment the dual SIM phone is still usable with Tesco for calls,
and a.n.other for data.
However if I travel abroad, who knows what will happen.

Cheers



Dave R
--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On Fri, 13 Feb 2026 15:29:40 +0000, Frank Slootweg wrote:

<snip>

As several UK posters seem to indicate, this might be a UK problem.

<snip>

Can any other UK posters comment on this 'support' nonsense?

<snip>

As posted up stream, my realme 6 Pro with dual SIM can work with Tesco
(O2) using VoLTE but with no other UK provider.
Running Android 11.

If I swap the SIM cards into my Samsung Tab A8 tablet (Android 14) they
all support VoLTE, so the carrier is providing the support for VoLTE.

My particular phone is not supported by 3 of the 4 major UK carries for
VoLTE despite being VoLTE capable.


Cheers



Dave R
--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

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