It is correct that Koodo is prioritizing cellular network over wifi with their wifi calling implementation. There wasn't any toggle to change it.

If you would like to force the phone on wifi calling, there is a workaround. You can turn on airplane mode but keep wifi on. That should theoretically push the phone into wifi calling. 

Thank you for your answer, indeed this is what I heard, but I’ve also heard that this option can be enable with a tech. Waiting for his comeback. 

This is a software limitation to remove load on telus server... 

I’m surrounded by cell phone antennas in Montreal, living in Montreal , but Bell/telus/koodoo is not on those antennas. 

Airplane mode work indeed. 

Other option is root and force the command via ADB, but isshhh, not quite right now on a 1900$ phone…

looks like Ill need to go back at videotron. I dont want to waste my time on that…

This should be CLEAR on telus/koodoo website, is kind of important, and I live on Montreal, I can’t imagine people in remote area...

You mean you’re waiting for a callback or you spoke with a tech some other way?

Both, called Telus to have technical info, and he couldn’t help me since it’s a koodoo. 

But I went to a Telus store to get the phone… strange. 

Anyway, Ive booked a call with koodoo, I received the call, the tech knows exactly what I was speaking about (might be not the 1st) and he open a ticket .  He doesn’t know, but Ive asked if it’s possible to push the option OTA. 

I should have news by the end of the day or tomorrow. 

So got a call back from Telus : internal policy, can’t be done. 

And this is probably why I don’t have signal even if I have antennas nearby : people use ebay booster or root phone to trick the service and I have bad reception. 

Wifi calling in 2023 should’nt be that hard to get , with the price of plans it could be the base minimum !

They’ll share inventory as Koodo is owned by Telus but they seem to run the technical side independently. Things like Koodo doesn’t use Telus’s 5G network yet and the like. 

I do find it strange that it prioritizes network over wifi if there’s basically any signal. I certainly hope that this will change. 

I think rooting is something that’s seen as some fringe thing. It is in the sense that not many people do it, but I see nothing wrong with putting on the software that you want on the device you paid for. We’re quite free to put anything we want on computers, but phones make it difficult to do these customizations. Samsung actively tries to prevent it, which I’m not a fan of. 

Oh well, no choice, I want a rooted phone, Ill take the time to do it. 

My Rooted OnePlus 5 got the option to prioritize wifi with the Koodoo Simcard; 2 sim card phone, and Ive pushed the option via ADB. 

I’d like to do something like this with Tasker (but need to be rooted, duh) : 

home wifi detected > airplane mode > enable wifi

Home wifi out of range > airplane mode disable > enable wifi, data

But still what they save?? At the price of plans, they don’t do any reduction on flagships anymore, and power Quebec cost, I’m sure they can afford more servers. 

If they need help with a project, I’m specialized in MEP design for datacenter, give me a call Telus

No guarantees, but there is an app in Google’s Play Store that might help until you decide to root your S23 Ultra. The app names Wi-Fi preferred as WLAN preferred. The app developer mentions that this app may not work on all devices, ymmv. The app contains ads.

Wi-Fi Calling

thank you, yes I’ve already test this, and it crash. unfortunately. 

And also I have a canadian S23U , which is a W model, and no root available for the moment. 

I’ve posted this topic in XDA, I don’t expect much. Ill deal with this issue and toggle the airplane mode. 

Anyway, in summer time the signal will be 0 all the time (trees) so I should be fine with the wifi calling stability. 

UPDATE of the day 

BTW to let you know, airplane mode does NOT work , here why : 

• go put the trash out, few meters from my home, airplane mode, get back in the house, wifi calling WON’T reconnect automatically , missed a call. 

• get the kid from school, forgot to toggle back off airplane mode, : missed a client call. 

‘’ we we have wifi calling, but the way we implement it defeat the whole purpose’’ 

Out of curiosity, did WiFi calling worked before with your previous device? Also, was signal coverage like this in the past?

I was with Videotron previously and my wife has a s21 with fido, and both can give priority to wifi, so the moment the wifi was strong enough, it connects automatically. 

It’s a known issue, Ive poster on 3 other forums, and people sent me links from 2018 that was an issue. 

I use to know the ex- vice president from Telus, M. Coté, but unfortunately he retired, I can’t even go there. 

Funny part is the 3 tech I spoke with, know this issue, they were laughing about it, it’s not even technical issue, its a policy. 

You do have the option here to suggest an idea, and if it gets a lot of likes, it may get Koodo to look into changing the policy. No guarantees, but worth trying I think. 

I wish, but th 14 days to get the phone back is coming fast, doing calls for other provider but they all more expensive if I buy the phone from samsung… 

Also , 1 tech told me there’s not a ton of costumer living in a city and having an ‘’in between’’ connection : not strong enough to have call on mobile network, but strong enough to get kickout of wifi calling. 

Yeah, it would be more limited for those who need it. Do you live on the Island of  Montreal itself? I remember when I used to live in Montreal that some parts were Telus/koodo deadzones. Always surprised me at the time. I thought that they would have long since been covered better, but I guess not. I guess you’ll have to decide if it’s worth it to keep going past the 14 days refund period for starting with a new carrier, or not pretty fast unfortunately. 

Im living in the west island, DDO. Also I’m going on site work for my datacenter project, and often they have only wifi, so while walking the site , it’s very important that the cell switch AUTOmatically to keep the signal for my clients. 

Which I had no issue with videotron with a 2016 cellphone…

The tech is there since years, Telus/koodo simple disable it to save server data. 

Would a VoIP service like Fongo Mobile work?

The app works over Wi-Fi (or mobile data) and is available for Android and iOS devices. You get a free  local Canadian phone number. The drawback is that your phone will not automatically switch between Wi-Fi and the mobile network. My thinking is that you could redirect/forward calls to the Fongo phone number allowing you to make or receive calls over Wi-Fi while on site.

Fongo Mobile app

Redirect Calls | T-Mobile | S23 Ultra

While this is not a solution to prioritized Wi-Fi calling, this may be an option/workaround worth considering.

Fongo work well, my wife used it for 8 years with a Costco Fido data plan 4gb @ 15$/month. 

(now she got her phone paid).  Down side : voice mail, driving (cut on every antenna changes), not native.

But here I need to finance my phone on a plan , so my employer pay , so fongo wont work and Ill need to paid the full 1900$ on my own. 

But for people that are looking for a price , I 100% would go with a OnePLus 11 (that will easy last a solid 6-7 year) +  Costco data plan + Fongo. 

The cost savings are huge, and you still can use your phone 99% like classic plans. 

ill check redirecting call ( I have a fongo backup number active), but ultimately, koodo store is in front of Fido store where I work. In 1h I believe I can fix this issue  permanently .

Overall game plan developed because I live in a near dead cell zone:

Works regardless of whether your phone supports wifi calling:  you need cell (mobile) phone + mobile plan ]+ VoIP account & app with another provider] (Fongo, Callcentric, etc).

Only give  out your VoIP number to contacts. Have all incoming calls simulring on VoIP and mobile number.

Your phone will ring on the native phone app and the VoIP app when in complete service range. Your choice which one to pick up or use for outgoing. If you are out of cell range but near wifi, only the wifi will ring.

Advantage: use the VoIP app for cheaper long distance + free roaming wherever you have access to wifi (airplane mode + wifi enabled).

Disadvantage: adds an additional expense, but easily justifiable if you roam. Text messages will generally be delivered by email, which makes it a little more complicated to answer.

VoIP with fongo is free and you still can get local phone numbers. Incoming call/text and outgoing calls are free. Voicemail and outgoing txt there’s a small fee. 

its a bit ridicule to have to do micmac like this in 2023 when all other provider don't have this issue. 

lesson learned. 

FINAL UPDATE 

So I took time to stop at Videotron store, and the guy was kind enough to put a sim in my koodo phone. 

COMFIRMED with screen shoot, Telus/koodo block the ‘’wifi prefered’’ option, so make the wifi calling mostlikely USELESS for low coverage. 

Hope they will change this policy.

TLTR : If wifi calling is important for you, don’T use Telus/Koodo. 

edit

This is exactly what I was trying to figure out, without wasting hours of my time trying to get some answer from Koodo. Thanks for creating this thread.

Your post makes it clear that Telus/Koodo are not provisioning the sim with the ‘wi-fi preferred’ option.  I also have a US sim in my phone, and the option has always been there for me to choose wi-fi or mobile preferred, and it works perfectly.

I am coming from a OP 7T dual sim, Koodo would not provision wi-fi calling (or VoLTE), as it was not purchased from them, and not on their magical list. But my US and EU sims always worked for wi-fi calling, even when in Canada, and even without buying the phone from the provider.

The problem is that I have a totally crap Koodo signal in my house, many calls were simply not coming through; or the voice quality was all choppy. So since Koodo would not enable wi-fi calling / VolTE on my 7T, I ended up getting a new S22 through Koodo.

The S22 Wi-fi calling works when it wants to, but often, it will not switch over to wi-fi, when I am obviously having terrible mobile signals in my house - completely garbled & choppy voice connection over the mobile network. If I was able to choose wi-fi preferred, it would completely fix the problem. 

But now, 3 months in with the S22,  I’m stuck with a new phone and tab, and unable to force wi-fi preferred even though I obviously need it due to the lousy Koodo mobile signal in my house. 

We are so third-world with the way our cell providers restrict what we can and can’t choose for what works best for us.  You simply don’t have these issues in the US or EU with their providers.