WiFi Calling caused long distance charges

[Drummer611]

Hello there everyone.

After I received the email from Telus, saying that the CRTC new requirements forced Telus to cancel Extend support, I found out that they now support WiFi Calling.  I was really excited because Telus doesn't have full coverage of my area but most places I go there's WiFi so I'd still be able to text and make voice calls.  Yesterday I received my bill and I had 42$ (plus taxes) of long distance fees.  The thing is that I have a Quebec unlimited calls plan and I've never left Quebec to make calls and the numbers I've called were Quebec numbers within Quebec area while making the calls.  Also, I previously called these numbers in the past month and I wasn't charged.  So I suspect the WiFi Calling feature to mistakenly connecting my calls to an Ontario tower.  I'm a few hours away from Ontario borders but I've never had issues before with my phone connecting to the wrong towers.  I've contacted Telus and they refunded the fees including the taxes.

So my goal here is to see if there's anybody else that encountered this issue or heard of it.  Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards, Jesse "Drummer611" H.

[NFtoBC · Accepted solution]

Well, there's no 'towers' involved when you use Wi-Fi calling, as you connect to a very local Wi-Fi router. It is more likely a glitch with the system, as you have in-province LD, but not Canada-wide LD. For most of us, the choice is local calling (and paid LD) or Canada-wide (included LD), so I expect the system saw any calls you made to numbers outside your local calling area as LD. It would seem the in-province LD was missed in the planning stages, as QC is the only province offering such an option, and your experience will galvanize Telus to fix the Quebec case.

[Mobility_Princess]

@NFtoBC is completely right. Wifi calling should have nothing to do with towers as it's over your home wifi. The towers only come in to play when the phone switches back to the cell phone voice plan which it can do seemlessly. Your phone and the towers it is picked up on is decided by what has the strongest signal. If your area is congested or the towers are becoming overloaded at one time, it may switch you over to the Ontario towers but, that's pretty rare. It can happen though. 

[xl]

Your phone will switch wifi to cellular if wifi is weak..... I have a similar situation using Optik on the Go.

When I get home, I turn off cellular to ensure I'm on wifi before using Optik on the Go app.  Since turning off cellular when I get home, I noticed I have extra data at the end of the month.

[Drummer611]

That's what I thought too but it's the only explanation I found. Like I said in my first post, I've called these numbers before and never got charged. But I started getting charged around when I enabled WiFi Calling. I know it doesn't make sense but I'm just trying to understand. I don't want to get charged again for LD I didn't make.

[NFtoBC]

If you get charged again, simply call in again! And ask to be referred to Tech Services, once your billing is addressed. Then you can have a chat with the folks who can effect a change.

[Bigrex4168]

Absolutely correct about how Wifi calling connects. When you see Telus wifi the phone is connecting directly to Telus servers through your internet connection avoiding the use of any towers unless of course your connected to a mobile data stick which then the data will be passed through the data stick to a tower.

To answer about long distance, it's based on your feature and plans set up on the service and does not reflect on the tower except for use of tracking. If your being charged LD and you know you have a North American plan or a nation plan then simply call in to have it corrected as something is not provisioned on the service correctly.

Hopefully that helps

[14FLRM]

Hi Jesse,

I work for TELUS, and would like to connect with you please.

Have sent you a private message with my contact details.

Would like to learn, and understand your experience better.

Thank you,