Yep! That's exactly the what I thought too. Currently Vodafone doesn't work in OnePlus devices. I came to know that for other carriers will also stop working by this year. Don't know if it's for other phones too. But I'm pretty sure it won't be.
Indonesia have done this and they’re also quite reliant on tourism. Depends on the rationale. Indonesia have very high taxes on imported goods, so imported untaxed grey market phones are a big problem. The ban is by whitelisting IMEI of phones. Tourists have to go through a special registration process to get their phones temporarily enabled for local SIMs
Phone companies provide different models for different regions. However, all is not lost for some of you. Example: some years ago I bought a "grey" phone from Kogan. Made in Malaysia. When they received the phone and before sending to me Kogan sneakily opened my box and reset the region to suit Australian/or international settings. So no problem for me.
Note you might still get good quality phone calls and data on 4G using normal roaming options.
Please look up your model, usually in About under settings. Then Google your model and "gsmarena". The web page often shows information on several models.
Note partial solution below.
As part of this you need to understand a little on bands and frequencies. A frequency is what is used to connect to a cell tower. A band is merely a group of frequencies. Your phone may connect to a cell tower either because a frequency is in a range covered by a band, or is listed separately. If interested compare bands and frequencies between models.
Each cell tower only transmits/receives some of the frequencies. So for those who get some reception it means your phone has come within the range of a frequency used by a particular company on that cell tower. Silly Australia has chosen a non-standard frequency (band?) for the majority of phone call connections. Which is why an international phone which doesn't have this frequency in its settings can only connect intermittently
Partial solution. Like in the Kogan example above, search/Google for someone who can change the settings for your phone model. It costs and there are scammers. If i knew more I would tell you. Rather than determine the frequencies for your phone they will probably just add frequencies that are available in Australia. Note Telstra, Optus and Vodafone use different frequencies.
If in your home country you activated wi-fi calling, depending on your home provider, you may be able to make and receive calls when connected to a local wi-fi network. Most Australians travelling overseas can do this, avoiding call charges by turning off "mobile data". They just haven't been told.
My oppo phones don't work on Vodafone. They work part of the time, but sometimes I go hours with people trying to ring or message me. I have tried all the troubleshooting guides.
I have a 4G Volte compatible phone from Europe and now I can't make or receive calls since the change . The carriers seem to have a whitelist of phones they allow. So many phones from Europe or Asia will be not be able to make calls in Australia even if fully Volte compatible in the country of purchase.
Typical carrier trying to keep you on their sales. It's a simple check to see the frequencies. Most these days seem to work everywhere for the sheer lazyness of design.
my 5G oppo phones don't work. they work sometimes, but will have several hours of blackouts. I have got an app that measures signal strength and says I have no signal most of the time
It can happen. My friend’s Sony phone was purchased in HK and won’t work on Telstra 5G. He battled with them for months but they won’t approve it for 5G
Really? My S20+ 5G just got a big pink line on the screen today and losing that SD slot has kept me from upgrading for years so I was looking at the International Sony Xperia 51GB flagship which still has an SD slot. Sigh.
Yeah. He really got the runaround by Telstra too. They finally gave up and pointed him to their list of supported devices. Seems really backwards to me because international travellers may want to bring their phones in that are not officially supported.
How would they be incompatible? It’s a piece of hardware. It doesn’t care what country it’s in.
Unless the Vodafone employee meant that Vodafone is not planning on having digital sims anytime soon, and meant that any phone purchased overseas that don’t have a sim slot then won’t be compatible. That’s the only thing I can think of. And Optus already do eSims, so even if that’s what the person meant, it won’t make the phones incompatible with all carriers. Just the ones that aren’t evolving with new technology.
The phones are VoLTE compatible, but the US and Australian networks have adopted an incompatible version of VoLTE, to force you to buy a phone from a western phone manufacturer. That's why most of the compatible phones are Motorola Nokia Alcatel, or custom made Telstra phones.
Welcome to the trade war, we'll show those commie Chinese a thing or two.
I was having a OnePlus device (OnePlus 7T) and it wasn't able to make or receive any calls with my Vodafone postpaid sim. They checked with their technical team and came to conclusion that OnePlus devices are no more compatible with Australian carriers anymore since voice calling is completely through VoLTE in Vodafone and OnePlus devices don't have an option with Australian carriers to enable it.
But I know for sure that the same device in other countries like India or Indian sim use VoLTE to make calls and it works perfectly alright. Then they answered it saying that since it's not bought from Australia it will be facing this issue and other devices will face it too in the upcoming months. Even the Vodafone employee who helped me through this was also shocked to hear this, we didn't actually think this could be a thing.
I bought a local sim from Coles called amaysim which is powered by Optus and changed my number to it, now the calls work fine and I have no problem, which means maybe the device isn't the issue as of now or the amaysim(optus) have not completely changed to 4G or VoLTE.
I don't know whether the same problem will arrive with this carrier too or it's just with Vodafone. Also I don't believe it will happen with other brand new devices bought outside the country because all the devices are now compatible with 4G or VoLTE. But it was said by the customer care technical team that if you buy a smartphone outside Australia it may not be compatible with Australian carriers soon and also mentioned that it's a rule that Australian government has enforced to the national carriers to follow and not their choice. I don't know if it's true or not but that's what was informed to me.
Find out which bands your carrier will use for 5g and then confirm with your phone and you should be fine. US carriers are all over the place with different bands and they only whitelist certain phones. Hope that’s not happening here
I haven't heard about anything specific, but I've heard of countries and service providers using different mobile frequencies.
Phones are manufactured and sold with this in mind.
As a result, internationally purchased phones may not work as well (or at all) outside of their country of purchase.
Perhaps our 5G is a different frequency. Resulting in internationally purchased phones not having the right antenna to pick up our frequency.
Yah I was recently buying a new phone from Motorola and there was something about overseas models not working in Australia. It was something to do with sub 6 5g and mmwave. All I remember was the terms no idea what it means.
You are not guaranteed that a phone bought from overseas will work in Australia.
Australia is getting rid of 3G. So any phone you buy must work on 4G. 5G is a nice to have
Overseas 5G phones don't necessarily work in Australia. My 5G oppo phones (even one bought in Australia, but not on Vodafone's approved list) does not work
I was having a OnePlus device (OnePlus 7T) and it wasn't able to make or receive any calls with my Vodafone postpaid sim. They checked with their technical team and came to conclusion that OnePlus devices are no more compatible with Australian carriers anymore since voice calling is completely through VoLTE in Vodafone and OnePlus devices don't have an option with Australian carriers to enable it.
But I know for sure that the same device in other countries like India or Indian sim use VoLTE to make calls and it works perfectly alright. Then they answered it saying that since it's not bought from Australia it will be facing this issue and other devices will face it too in the upcoming months. Even the Vodafone employee who helped me through this was also shocked to hear this, we didn't actually think this could be a thing.
I bought a local sim from Coles called amaysim which is powered by Optus and changed my number to it, now the calls work fine and I have no problem, which means maybe the device isn't the issue as of now or the amaysim(optus) have not completely changed to 4G or VoLTE.
I don't know whether the same problem will arrive with this carrier too or it's just with Vodafone. Also I don't believe it will happen with other brand new devices bought outside the country because all the devices are now compatible with 4G or VoLTE. But it was said by the customer care technical team that if you buy a smartphone outside Australia it may not be compatible with Australian carriers soon and also mentioned that it's a rule that Australian government has enforced to the national carriers to follow and not their choice. I don't know if it's true or not but that's what was informed to me.
All international phones should work in Australia, even OnePlus despite not following certain Aus regulations. Check this if you can't get VoLTE enabled:
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/9m01z7np
But you're sure there's no setting to enable it on Android 12?
Your phone should completely support 3g & 4g though, it just doesn't have 5g
Nah. I have a 4G Volte compatible phone from Europe and can't make or receive calls in Australia because apparently it's not whitelisted. .
The option to enable Volte seems to have been removed from my settings in the last OS update ( I think ) but I can use the dialer code and see it is infact compatible, but greyed out so I can't force it.
The only way I can find to activate it is to root my phone and manually edit the build.prop file
No. It is true. Only certain 5G phones work on the Vodafone network. I bought an Oppo phone in Australia, but it isn't on the Vodafone approved list and does not work most of the time. I think the bands must alternate or something, because every now & then it does work.
this seems to be true.
I've got a Cat S62 Pro that I bought from an online store, because it was $400 cheaper than the cheapest Australian retailer. It's a VoLTE capable phone but Telstra don't support it (currently battling their tech support), Vodafone don't support it (tried one of their Sims, just cancelled it again) and I don't have high hopes for Optus.
No one yet has been able to explain to me why my VoLTE capable phone won't use VoLTE on their VoLTE capable network - but dialling \*#\*#4636#\*#\* shows that neither Telstra nor Vodafone are provisioning VoLTE or VoWiFi to my device, presumably for purely arbitrary reasons.
My LGV20 (Second phone) is working perfectly on 4G in Spain but ive just gone into an Oz site..Check my phone and it will not work when i get back home to Australia !! Thats crazy !!!
Pieces of shit !! Its a 4G dual sim on the packaging and specifications so how on earth can Oz service providers not allow it to work ?? Insane and absurd !!
That doesn't make sense really, I doubt it's true at all.
I've been buying phones overseas from China & Hong Kong my whole life and they all work here.
You just have to check the network bands supported on the phone and if it matches your provider in Aus and it will work.
The only other way is if your phone doesn't have VoLTE enabled.
That make sense if you consider the fact that the post say that the measure will apply in the near future and actually that's what i ve learned about my phone today..
Seems unlikely. We do have tourists and conduct international business.
Yep! That's exactly the what I thought too. Currently Vodafone doesn't work in OnePlus devices. I came to know that for other carriers will also stop working by this year. Don't know if it's for other phones too. But I'm pretty sure it won't be.
Indonesia have done this and they’re also quite reliant on tourism. Depends on the rationale. Indonesia have very high taxes on imported goods, so imported untaxed grey market phones are a big problem. The ban is by whitelisting IMEI of phones. Tourists have to go through a special registration process to get their phones temporarily enabled for local SIMs
Phone companies provide different models for different regions. However, all is not lost for some of you. Example: some years ago I bought a "grey" phone from Kogan. Made in Malaysia. When they received the phone and before sending to me Kogan sneakily opened my box and reset the region to suit Australian/or international settings. So no problem for me. Note you might still get good quality phone calls and data on 4G using normal roaming options. Please look up your model, usually in About under settings. Then Google your model and "gsmarena". The web page often shows information on several models. Note partial solution below. As part of this you need to understand a little on bands and frequencies. A frequency is what is used to connect to a cell tower. A band is merely a group of frequencies. Your phone may connect to a cell tower either because a frequency is in a range covered by a band, or is listed separately. If interested compare bands and frequencies between models. Each cell tower only transmits/receives some of the frequencies. So for those who get some reception it means your phone has come within the range of a frequency used by a particular company on that cell tower. Silly Australia has chosen a non-standard frequency (band?) for the majority of phone call connections. Which is why an international phone which doesn't have this frequency in its settings can only connect intermittently Partial solution. Like in the Kogan example above, search/Google for someone who can change the settings for your phone model. It costs and there are scammers. If i knew more I would tell you. Rather than determine the frequencies for your phone they will probably just add frequencies that are available in Australia. Note Telstra, Optus and Vodafone use different frequencies. If in your home country you activated wi-fi calling, depending on your home provider, you may be able to make and receive calls when connected to a local wi-fi network. Most Australians travelling overseas can do this, avoiding call charges by turning off "mobile data". They just haven't been told.
My oppo phones don't work on Vodafone. They work part of the time, but sometimes I go hours with people trying to ring or message me. I have tried all the troubleshooting guides.
I have a 4G Volte compatible phone from Europe and now I can't make or receive calls since the change . The carriers seem to have a whitelist of phones they allow. So many phones from Europe or Asia will be not be able to make calls in Australia even if fully Volte compatible in the country of purchase.
i got a s10 plus from boost refurbished it a new Zealand model it works but will it stop working it says volte on the top im with boost mobile
Typical carrier trying to keep you on their sales. It's a simple check to see the frequencies. Most these days seem to work everywhere for the sheer lazyness of design.
my 5G oppo phones don't work. they work sometimes, but will have several hours of blackouts. I have got an app that measures signal strength and says I have no signal most of the time
It can happen. My friend’s Sony phone was purchased in HK and won’t work on Telstra 5G. He battled with them for months but they won’t approve it for 5G
Really? My S20+ 5G just got a big pink line on the screen today and losing that SD slot has kept me from upgrading for years so I was looking at the International Sony Xperia 51GB flagship which still has an SD slot. Sigh.
Yeah. He really got the runaround by Telstra too. They finally gave up and pointed him to their list of supported devices. Seems really backwards to me because international travellers may want to bring their phones in that are not officially supported.
How would they be incompatible? It’s a piece of hardware. It doesn’t care what country it’s in. Unless the Vodafone employee meant that Vodafone is not planning on having digital sims anytime soon, and meant that any phone purchased overseas that don’t have a sim slot then won’t be compatible. That’s the only thing I can think of. And Optus already do eSims, so even if that’s what the person meant, it won’t make the phones incompatible with all carriers. Just the ones that aren’t evolving with new technology.
My 5G oppos phones from Aliexpress don't work
The phones are VoLTE compatible, but the US and Australian networks have adopted an incompatible version of VoLTE, to force you to buy a phone from a western phone manufacturer. That's why most of the compatible phones are Motorola Nokia Alcatel, or custom made Telstra phones. Welcome to the trade war, we'll show those commie Chinese a thing or two.
So true, my huawei will be giving up the ghost soon
Yea same here by the end of August I won't be able to call anyone on my Huawei p30 lite
I was having a OnePlus device (OnePlus 7T) and it wasn't able to make or receive any calls with my Vodafone postpaid sim. They checked with their technical team and came to conclusion that OnePlus devices are no more compatible with Australian carriers anymore since voice calling is completely through VoLTE in Vodafone and OnePlus devices don't have an option with Australian carriers to enable it. But I know for sure that the same device in other countries like India or Indian sim use VoLTE to make calls and it works perfectly alright. Then they answered it saying that since it's not bought from Australia it will be facing this issue and other devices will face it too in the upcoming months. Even the Vodafone employee who helped me through this was also shocked to hear this, we didn't actually think this could be a thing. I bought a local sim from Coles called amaysim which is powered by Optus and changed my number to it, now the calls work fine and I have no problem, which means maybe the device isn't the issue as of now or the amaysim(optus) have not completely changed to 4G or VoLTE. I don't know whether the same problem will arrive with this carrier too or it's just with Vodafone. Also I don't believe it will happen with other brand new devices bought outside the country because all the devices are now compatible with 4G or VoLTE. But it was said by the customer care technical team that if you buy a smartphone outside Australia it may not be compatible with Australian carriers soon and also mentioned that it's a rule that Australian government has enforced to the national carriers to follow and not their choice. I don't know if it's true or not but that's what was informed to me.
I have no idea what that phone is.
Find out which bands your carrier will use for 5g and then confirm with your phone and you should be fine. US carriers are all over the place with different bands and they only whitelist certain phones. Hope that’s not happening here
I haven't heard about anything specific, but I've heard of countries and service providers using different mobile frequencies. Phones are manufactured and sold with this in mind. As a result, internationally purchased phones may not work as well (or at all) outside of their country of purchase. Perhaps our 5G is a different frequency. Resulting in internationally purchased phones not having the right antenna to pick up our frequency.
Yah I was recently buying a new phone from Motorola and there was something about overseas models not working in Australia. It was something to do with sub 6 5g and mmwave. All I remember was the terms no idea what it means.
You are not guaranteed that a phone bought from overseas will work in Australia. Australia is getting rid of 3G. So any phone you buy must work on 4G. 5G is a nice to have
Overseas 5G phones don't necessarily work in Australia. My 5G oppo phones (even one bought in Australia, but not on Vodafone's approved list) does not work
Was the vodafone agent trying to sell you into a new phone/plan at the time by any chance? They have given you bogus information in any case.
I was having a OnePlus device (OnePlus 7T) and it wasn't able to make or receive any calls with my Vodafone postpaid sim. They checked with their technical team and came to conclusion that OnePlus devices are no more compatible with Australian carriers anymore since voice calling is completely through VoLTE in Vodafone and OnePlus devices don't have an option with Australian carriers to enable it. But I know for sure that the same device in other countries like India or Indian sim use VoLTE to make calls and it works perfectly alright. Then they answered it saying that since it's not bought from Australia it will be facing this issue and other devices will face it too in the upcoming months. Even the Vodafone employee who helped me through this was also shocked to hear this, we didn't actually think this could be a thing. I bought a local sim from Coles called amaysim which is powered by Optus and changed my number to it, now the calls work fine and I have no problem, which means maybe the device isn't the issue as of now or the amaysim(optus) have not completely changed to 4G or VoLTE. I don't know whether the same problem will arrive with this carrier too or it's just with Vodafone. Also I don't believe it will happen with other brand new devices bought outside the country because all the devices are now compatible with 4G or VoLTE. But it was said by the customer care technical team that if you buy a smartphone outside Australia it may not be compatible with Australian carriers soon and also mentioned that it's a rule that Australian government has enforced to the national carriers to follow and not their choice. I don't know if it's true or not but that's what was informed to me.
All international phones should work in Australia, even OnePlus despite not following certain Aus regulations. Check this if you can't get VoLTE enabled: https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/9m01z7np But you're sure there's no setting to enable it on Android 12? Your phone should completely support 3g & 4g though, it just doesn't have 5g
Nah. I have a 4G Volte compatible phone from Europe and can't make or receive calls in Australia because apparently it's not whitelisted. . The option to enable Volte seems to have been removed from my settings in the last OS update ( I think ) but I can use the dialer code and see it is infact compatible, but greyed out so I can't force it. The only way I can find to activate it is to root my phone and manually edit the build.prop file
I thought about rooting but my phone with other sym cards has the option to enable and disable volte its not just with that sym card
No. It is true. Only certain 5G phones work on the Vodafone network. I bought an Oppo phone in Australia, but it isn't on the Vodafone approved list and does not work most of the time. I think the bands must alternate or something, because every now & then it does work.
this seems to be true. I've got a Cat S62 Pro that I bought from an online store, because it was $400 cheaper than the cheapest Australian retailer. It's a VoLTE capable phone but Telstra don't support it (currently battling their tech support), Vodafone don't support it (tried one of their Sims, just cancelled it again) and I don't have high hopes for Optus. No one yet has been able to explain to me why my VoLTE capable phone won't use VoLTE on their VoLTE capable network - but dialling \*#\*#4636#\*#\* shows that neither Telstra nor Vodafone are provisioning VoLTE or VoWiFi to my device, presumably for purely arbitrary reasons.
My LGV20 (Second phone) is working perfectly on 4G in Spain but ive just gone into an Oz site..Check my phone and it will not work when i get back home to Australia !! Thats crazy !!! Pieces of shit !! Its a 4G dual sim on the packaging and specifications so how on earth can Oz service providers not allow it to work ?? Insane and absurd !!
That doesn't make sense really, I doubt it's true at all. I've been buying phones overseas from China & Hong Kong my whole life and they all work here. You just have to check the network bands supported on the phone and if it matches your provider in Aus and it will work. The only other way is if your phone doesn't have VoLTE enabled.
That make sense if you consider the fact that the post say that the measure will apply in the near future and actually that's what i ve learned about my phone today..