Voice on Nokia 225 no longer working.

I have a distant memory of encountering this timezone issue before. However, I don’t see it now. I have my network settings set to 2G/3G/4G and see the VoLTE marking. My phone’s area code and I are both on Mountain time. I just tested by sending a text message, and it’s timestamped correctly. My wife’s phone number has an area code that’s in the central time zone while she is located with me in the Mountain time zone. When she texts me then the timestamp is still consistent with the Mountain timezone.

I have the same exact problem as PineApples and Finlator to the letter.  Nokia 225 4g.  T-Mobile account is only Talk and Text… no data.  225 has VoLTE abilities and has been working fine for about a year without any data plan and no way to update itself with a newer software version.  Did a full reset / wipe with no change.  If you attempt to make a call now and wait, you can watch the LTE 4 bars dwindle from five bars to zero bars and the LTE will switch to E and it MIGHT connect with a single bar on E if there is an old tower nearby, but it is very rare and unstable if it does connect.  If I go into the settings and change the network type to “3G/2G”, it doesn’t go through the attempting to use LTE, but only throws up one bar and just as unstable and rare.  Something certainly seems like it changed on the T-Mobile end.  Any chance the default APN the phone/sim comes with has changed… could it be fixed with a corrected APN if VoLTE is the primary way the 4g voice works?  Just an idea.

I purchased the Nokia 225 4g as a cell phone for my elderly mother after her previous phone aged out of the 2g network.  The primary requirements were simplicity, reliability, and most of battery life.  The classic Nokia Feature Phone was a good replacement since if she forgot to plug it in for a week, it would still have battery life, unlike most all smartphones. Style, apps, and internet access are not required

The plan I have for it is a Pre-Paid Talk and Text only plan that is no longer offered.  Exactly what she needs and the cost to me is minimal since she only really uses it for emergencies.  The previous phone did still work, though very weakly and intermittently, on the 2g network at her home and I purchased the Nokia for the 4g ability when I found she couldn’t call out from her doctor office for a pickup.  It worked excellently for months, but now the Nokia times-out of the 4g network when making voice calls and MIGHT connect to 2g, and then if is does, the signal is still flaky at best and often drops.

I’m thinking that T-mobile wanted/needed to make a VoLTE change that wouldn’t affect (or perhaps would help) the majority of their userbase and didn’t consider our tiny segment of users that would be cut off.  Or perhaps they did know it and were either willing to lose us for the greater good or were being evil and hoping it would force us to pay for one of THEIR phones ($) and/or move to an account with a data plan ($) and, hey, if we weren’t willing to do that, then fine, leave, we weren’t making much money off you anyway.

I would be very surprised if, for the above reasons, they put any real effort into fixing the problem affecting the Nokia 225 4g users.  The cost in time and people power would not outweigh the cost of losing a speck of users.  I wonder if this is an issue with other non-Nokia 225 users using the same plan setup.  I’m guessing that the two or so feature phones T-Mobile Prepaid does sell must still work on their network somehow.  It would be a smart move on T-Mobile's part to reach out and say, “Hey, Mr. Hazel Ra… You’ve been a uninterrupted T-Mobile customer of ours for the last 18 years… sorry for the inconvenience we’ve caused you through no fault of your own.  Here’s the cheapest refurbished phone we sell that will continue to work on your plan, we’ll ship it to you for free.  Thank you for being a loyal customer… tell your friends about us!”

That last part was to you, T-mobile, just in case you missed the subtlety.

My 225 is working on 4G VoLTE now too! Yay to whoever fixed the bug.

Now that I’m back on 4G, my incoming text messages are back to having a time stamp 2 hours before they actually are sent/arrive. Does anyone else have this problem? It may be because my area code is a US pacific time area code, but I live in US central time. I tried to fix this before with no luck. Timestamps are not wrong when using 2G.

Not being a T-Mobile sold device.  It probably does not support the stock implementation of VoLTE that T-Mobile uses and can no longer fall back to 3G to make a call.  VoLTE is required to make calls now after the 3G network shutdown.  If your device does have a VoLTE setting that isn’t enabled.  Try enabling it to see if that resolves your issue with calls.  

I think it does have something to do with VoLTE.  I put the phones IMEI in the T-Mobile compatibility checker, and it comes back as being usable on the network.   The phone does have VoLTE which used to work but now won't engage on neither the old device or the new one of the exact same model. 

This must be what's causing the issue, so maybe T-Mobile has changed something about the VoLTE that now makes it no longer compatible with the VoLTE feature on this unlocked device?

The phone is listed as being a 4g device.

T-Mobile uses Google’s stock implementation of Android’s VoLTE and WiFi Calling.  This goes all of the way back the G1.  If Google has changed something, it would affect a lot more users.  Have you had an update with the device recently that might have impacted VoLTE working on T-Mobile?  The device is a dual-SIM device.  Have you tried putting your SIM in the other slot to see if that helps?  Some dual-SIM devices only allow certain features to work on a specific SIM slot.  

and youre still pulling in 4G currently correct?

@syaoran The one I've gotten only shows one sim slot. I know the device is said to be dual sim but mine only has one. I never worried about this though since the phone was working fine on the network up until recently.  I don't know if any updates to the handset.  I had just voice and text plan with T-Mobile that doesn't have data.  

@fireguy_6364 Yes, I believe I'm still getting 4G as my service indicator on the device lists 5 bars of LTE.  

usually most phones will show VoLTE up top near the bars if it has those abilities..and its to early for TMO to be shutting down 3G yet..so doubt thats it.

edit: if it doesnt have data then it wouldnt be able to use VoLTE..VoLTE-Voice over LTE..which would be using data to make the call instead of the 3G side.