Enable WIFI calling outside Canada!

[cybersurfr]

In a work from anywhere kind of world The fact TELUS does not allow WI-FI calling outside Canada is truly bizarre. I have read hundreds of comments on Twitter, Reddit, and on this Forum dating back to 2017 and yet no action from TELUS. If you are ever outside Canada in a concrete building that has great Wi-Fi but poor cell signal. (Much of the Caribbean and other areas of the world). This function will simply never work with TELUS. I ended up having to switch my primary work line away from TELUS in order to address this scenario after 6 years of *hoping*. 

Every North American carrier Rogers, Sprint, Verizon etc. all allow this functionality. TELUS loves to compare itself as only "Second to South Korea" - Well in SK They give all their users a dedicated app that allows texting and calling from anywhere in the world!  it is simply inexcusable in our current world.

[FuzzyLogic]

Not sure why Telus hasn't implemented this or what is required to make it work.

It appears that they are not the only Canadian carriers that don't support this (can't verify but scroll down to the section on which carriers support it:

What is Wi-Fi Calling? (cellphones.ca)

[cybersurfr]

They Kind of Are the only carrier to not support it (sort of). In that list you sent over the carriers that say they *don't* Are Bell, Telus, VIRGIN. But those are actually all sharing ONE network. There are in reality only two national networks in Canada : Telus/Bell alliance and Rogers. some smaller ones like Sasktel etc also, but not national.

Semantics, I suppose. If we say 3 networks don't support it, then Fido, Rogers, Videotron, Freedom etc all do. And in fact most North American and intl carriers all do.

I have no idea why they have not allowed this either, especially with COVID people are working everywhere and in every circumstance. my suspicion is that it is to boost roaming revenues to be honest...

In other parts of the world that do not have stellar coverage, but DO have Wi-Fi this feature would be a godsend. Also I know many rural people are getting Starlink internet which happens to be giving them out-of-country IP's and are getting hosed on the feature as a result as well. After 6 years with the company I moved my primary line away from TELUS due to this ( but still have its of other services with telus). When I travel, I need everything at my disposal to stay connected. Not just what TELUS deems necessary.

There is truly nothing TELUS needs to do , other than to remove their Geo-block. I hope they see they will actually enable it.

[FuzzyLogic]

In the days before Telus email was hosted by Google there were similar restrictions to accessing their SMTP server from Mail applications when outside the country. It would only work with the Web Mail interface or a VPN connection.

I suspect it's a security 'concern' as it does give another way to get into their networks. The demand may not be sufficient to justify the risks?

[cybersurfr]

I thought about this too honestly, but as a network engineer, I can confirm you are able to hit their servers and ports for Wi-FI calling outside of Canada. They just simply drop your connection after. This makes me feel it may be enabled for some corporate clients or what not, but not the general population of devices. ( This is why I was mentioning the only logical reason I see is to boost roaming revenue).

Even with the general idea of a security concern, as a telecom company these are risks that have been mitigated by  dozens of telecoms in the USA, Canada and elsewhere. There is certainly some best practices around securing it etc. As TELUS claims to say they want to aim to be best in the world, I don't know how they have such a big miss on this front.

[Amyj]

Hi @cybersurfr We have forwarded your feedback to our wifi calling teams. Thanks! 

[sportsman31]

Hi
I have read that if you use a vpn that you can use Wifi calling outside of Canada.
Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks.

[cybersurfr]

No, this information is partially outdated. It used to be if you used a VPN it would work 100%. TELUS has now placed counter-measures against VPNs. You may get lucky and it may work once or twice, but as soon as TELUS detects your out of country, it will eventually blacklist the phone from WI-Fi calling until it sees it back in Canada.

I travel a fair bit, and I cannot emphasize enough to NOT rely on this when you travel, it is nothing but frustration. You have two choices really:

1) Get a local eSIM using Airalo app to get Data. Then you can use an app like Fongo, TextNow or Line2. You then use call forwarding to send your calls to the app. This is reliable.

2) Switch to Rogers/Fido who does allow this to work anywhere in the world. This is so simple and easy. Just get data on the phone and WI-Fi Calling will always flip on. If ease of use is paramount, this is probably your best bet.

I was travelling and we had a mix of carriers in our group. Everyone who had rogers was able to have WI-fi calling and SMS to Canada with ease. Its such a shame TELUS is trying to do this to bilk its users.

[sportsman31]

Thanks for the info.

For those that have phones that are esim compatabile, you can get free data with Dent wireless.

https://dent.app.link/8RQ2DtFbcsb

[cybersurfr]

DENT is a good find. On my last trip I played with DENT, GigSKY , and Airalo.  Here is a bit of my experience:

Dent has good options and is pretty unique in that you can sell your unused data. but both them and Gigsky do NOT disclose which network you will end up on. In my experience they drop you onto some of the lower cost carriers in your destination country which could be problematic for you if your going off the beaten path. GIGSKY was nice enough to refund my money after this experience though , so kudos for customer service.

Airalo esim App - they disclose which network you will end up on, and tend to use the largest carriers in the area your travelling to (but not ALWAYS). This way you can check your coverage in advance etc. and these apps are so cheap, I really recommend it to reduce frustration so you can enjoy your trip.

I really wish TELUS did not behave this way, but it is what it is.

[rchapti]

@cybersurfr 

I can confirm connecting to VPN for wifi calling works still. I have been using it since July. I have been out of Canada for 2 months now and I am still able to use wifi calling.