Wifi Calling overseas

S

sudraka

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Ive had Telkom pre paid before which worked great on wifi calling in the UK, The it stopped working and I moved over to Cell C. Cell c worked fine until they upgraded their network in April 2025. Despite many attempts to get it working with cell c , including buying two new phones that were supposed to be compatible and getting two sim swaps , and the issue been escalated many times with Cell C , they still cant get it right.

I want rock solid reliable wifi calling on prepaid when traveling, mostly in the UK . Anyone doing the same can recommend a provider? Ideally id want it to work as an esim on my google pixel 8 but will buy a "compatible" phone if need be.
 
sudraka said:
IVe had Telkom pre paid before which worked great on wifi calling in the UK, The it stopped working and I moved over to Cell C. Cell c worked fine until they upgraded their network in April 2025. Despite many attempts to get it working with cell c , including buying two new phones that were supposed to be compatible and getting two sim swaps , and the issue been escalated many times with Cell C , they still cant get it right.

I want rock solid reliabel wifi calling on prepaid when traveling Anyone doing the same can recomend a provider? Ideally id want it to work as an esim on my google pixel 8 but will buy a "compatible" phone if need be.
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So, my EU sim card from a country there, uses Wi-Fi calling in South Africa when its roaming. Very nice.

The problem is, South African mobile networks are money-hungry, scaly and thieving. They only use Wi-Fi calling for coverage issues in South Africa. NOT Internationally. MTN actively blocks the Wi-Fi calling connections from other countries and only some ISPs in ZA will work. Vodacom allows more connections from here but not from internationally. Cell-C like you said, used to allow it but i think they've stopped.

I remember talking to the call center for Vodacom about it and they were like no, if you're roaming you must enable roaming and pay roaming fees. MTN the same.

They realized people can use this to pay local call prices when overseas and they are coining it massively on roaming fees - allowing Wi-Fi calling would eat into that profit.

Other first-world networks don't mind though, and they let you use Wi-Fi calling for "local" call costs in other countries. Its a pity.
 
Ah, that sucks.....

Out of interest, All UK networks charge roaming rates when wifi calling out of county. So its not only SA.

Anyone tried a VPN, setup on their router, to counter this?
 
Can't you just get a SIM at the destination and use that?
 
saor said:
Can't you just get a SIM at the destination and use that?
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No, I need people in SA to contact me normally as if i was there, as well as receive texts from the bank etc. Roaming is expesive and risky. I am away at least half of the year for 14-30 days at a time.
 
What has replaced getting other countries' local numbers via Skype? Maybe a forwarding plan that way?
 
sudraka said:
Ah, that sucks.....

Out of interest, All UK networks charge roaming rates when wifi calling out of county. So its not only SA.

Anyone tried a VPN, setup on their router, to counter this?
Click to expand...
No they don't.
 
sudraka said:
No, I need people in SA to contact me normally as if i was there, as well as receive texts from the bank etc. Roaming is expesive and risky. I am away at least half of the year for 14-30 days at a time.
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Dual-sim phone. Use the new SIM for whatsapp data and get whatsapp calls? Or do you need to get actual calls? Is there no way to dual-sim and use the 2nd sim for the data on the wifi calling?
 
Oxymoron said:
Vodacom/Telkom works perfectly for me when I’m out of the country. Vodacom treats all transactions as local, not sure about Telkom.
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Thank you for the feedback, I think i might try Vodacom... heard the least issues re their wifi calling abroad.
 
saor said:
Dual-sim phone. Use the new SIM for whatsapp data and get whatsapp calls? Or do you need to get actual calls? Is there no way to dual-sim and use the 2nd sim for the data on the wifi calling?
Click to expand...
Need actual calls, Client wont whatsapp call me
 
Vodacom also worked great for me and they also have great mobile data bundles for international travel
 
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