Inquiries regarding switching to Eir Mobile

DECEiFER

Hi,

I'm currently with iD (prepay) and since they're shutting down I'm going to need to find a new carrier. I'm not too happy as I'm not a heavy user of carrier-dependant features, and I just need a decent enough service to keep me going when I don't have WiFi to rely on. Even for calls, I use VoIP when possible (Skype, Facebook, etc.). Additionally, with iD, being able to keep the credit for use on, for example phone numbers not covered on-plan was a great selling point while being able to avail of a decent 15GB data cap, which I probably use very little of. Eir on the other hand only let you do that if you select a sub-1GB "Simply" plan, which is just too little. Anyway, I digress; it is what it is.

So now I'm looking at one of your SIM-Only plans and I have a few questions. For one, what do the call minutes (limited and unlimited, depending on the plan) cover? I presume the likes of 1890 wouldn't be covered and would incur an extra charge in the applicable billing cycle, but what about Irish landlines on top of all Irish mobile carriers? I'm normally a buy the phone outright and get on the best bang-for-your-buck prepay plan out there - which also goes well with my low carrier-dependence usage style - so apologies if this seems like a stupid question, as going SIM-Only would be a first for me.

My second question is a slightly more technical one. I'm intrigued by WiFi calling. I don't use carrier calling often as I find VoIP adequate enough most of the time, but I'm still intrigued nonetheless. I understand to avail of the service I'd need to have a one of the phones that's currently supported, but it would also need to be purchased from Eir (and by extension, running an Eir-branded firmware build). I have a Galaxy S8 (G950F) unbranded. However, I believe I saw in another thread I'd read a earlier today that the phone can be sent away to some company and be flashed with an Eir-branded firmware? I can actually do the flashing myself using Odin and SamFirmware to source the build, and I'd rather do that than trust someone else, on top of being without my phone during the turnaround period. Trouble is, Oreo isn't released yet on Eir (or any other Irish and UK carrier). I've already flashed the CRAP (love it!) Oreo build since it came out earlier last month and have had no issues with it. So, in summary, my question here is: when is Oreo going to be released by Eir for the S8 and if I flash the Eir-branded build of it, will WiFi calling then be available?

Thanks.

eir: Tracey

DECEiFER wrote: »

Hi,

I'm currently with iD (prepay) and since they're shutting down I'm going to need to find a new carrier. I'm not too happy as I'm not a heavy user of carrier-dependant features, and I just need a decent enough service to keep me going when I don't have WiFi to rely on. Even for calls, I use VoIP when possible (Skype, Facebook, etc.). Additionally, with iD, being able to keep the credit for use on, for example phone numbers not covered on-plan was a great selling point while being able to avail of a decent 15GB data cap, which I probably use very little of. Eir on the other hand only let you do that if you select a sub-1GB "Simply" plan, which is just too little. Anyway, I digress; it is what it is.

So now I'm looking at one of your SIM-Only plans and I have a few questions. For one, what do the call minutes (limited and unlimited, depending on the plan) cover? I presume the likes of 1890 wouldn't be covered and would incur an extra charge in the applicable billing cycle, but what about Irish landlines on top of all Irish mobile carriers? I'm normally a buy the phone outright and get on the best bang-for-your-buck prepay plan out there - which also goes well with my low carrier-dependence usage style - so apologies if this seems like a stupid question, as going SIM-Only would be a first for me.

My second question is a slightly more technical one. I'm intrigued by WiFi calling. I don't use carrier calling often as I find VoIP adequate enough most of the time, but I'm still intrigued nonetheless. I understand to avail of the service I'd need to have a one of the phones that's currently supported, but it would also need to be purchased from Eir (and by extension, running an Eir-branded firmware build). I have a Galaxy S8 (G950F) unbranded. However, I believe I saw in another thread I'd read a earlier today that the phone can be sent away to some company and be flashed with an Eir-branded firmware? I can actually do the flashing myself using Odin and SamFirmware to source the build, and I'd rather do that than trust someone else, on top of being without my phone during the turnaround period. Trouble is, Oreo isn't released yet on Eir (or any other Irish and UK carrier). I've already flashed the CRAP (love it!) Oreo build since it came out earlier last month and have had no issues with it. So, in summary, my question here is: when is Oreo going to be released by Eir for the S8 and if I flash the Eir-branded build of it, will WiFi calling then be available?

Thanks.

Hi DECEiFER, 

Thanks for getting in touch with us here. 

The unlimited sim only plan includes all calls to landlines and mobiles within Ireland. All other calls would not be included. All details for these plans can be found here

If you purchase a handset directly from ourselves the wifi calling service will be available to you, if the handset is not purchased from us then the third party company would need to apply this software. You can find all details on this here  If you were to carry this out yourself we would not be able to support this, I'm afraid.

Unfortunately, we have no release date at present on when the oreo update will be happening but should be soon.  

Thanks

Tracey 

DECEiFER

eir: Tracey wrote: »

Thanks for getting in touch with us here. 

The unlimited sim only plan includes all calls to landlines and mobiles within Ireland. All other calls would not be included. All details for these plans can be found here

If you purchase a handset directly from ourselves the wifi calling service will be available to you, if the handset is not purchased from us then the third party company would need to apply this software. You can find all details on this here  If you were to carry this out yourself we would not be able to support this, I'm afraid.

Unfortunately, we have no release date at present on when the oreo update will be happening but should be soon.  

Thanks

Tracey 

Thanks, Tracey. Understood re. not supported. I know the drill and I'm fully-prepared to flash my phone to an Eir-branded firmware and chance if it'll provide the WiFi calling feature or not. I've gotten myself out of many a soft bricking over the years!

Can I ask when you'll be pushing out Oreo for the S8 G950F? I'm not going to flash a Nougat build; that's a step backwards.

eir: Tracey

DECEiFER wrote: »

eir: Tracey wrote: »

Thanks for getting in touch with us here. 

The unlimited sim only plan includes all calls to landlines and mobiles within Ireland. All other calls would not be included. All details for these plans can be found here

If you purchase a handset directly from ourselves the wifi calling service will be available to you, if the handset is not purchased from us then the third party company would need to apply this software. You can find all details on this here  If you were to carry this out yourself we would not be able to support this, I'm afraid.

Unfortunately, we have no release date at present on when the oreo update will be happening but should be soon.  

Thanks

Tracey 

Thanks, Tracey. Understood re. not supported. I know the drill and I'm fully-prepared to flash my phone to an Eir-branded firmware and chance if it'll provide the WiFi calling feature or not. I've gotten myself out of many a soft bricking over the years!

Can I ask when you'll be pushing out Oreo for the S8 G950F? I'm not going to flash a Nougat build; that's a step backwards.

[font=Calibri, sans-serif]No problem at all. [/font]
[font=Calibri, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Calibri, sans-serif]The oreo update won't be released until after the S9 is launched so it'll be a few more weeks yet. [/font]
[font=Calibri, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Calibri, sans-serif]Thanks [/font]
[font=Calibri, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Calibri, sans-serif]Tracey [/font][font=Verdana, sans-serif] [/font]

MarkR

I'd like in on this too. I've a OnePlus 3, which supports wifi calling. If I could flash a different firmware (modem I presume?) I'd like to try it. I try different ROMs all the time, so not worrying about data loss.

DECEiFER

MarkR wrote: »

I'd like in on this too. I've a OnePlus 3, which supports wifi calling. If I could flash a different firmware (modem I presume?) I'd like to try it. I try different ROMs all the time, so not worrying about data loss.

Problem is, Mark, if Eir doesn't sell the phone then there's no firmware for it from them that includes the feature and I don't know, even if you found a firmware that allowed it elsewhere, if it would work because it's not a supported device, either.

https://www.eir.ie/wificalling wrote:

Apple: 5C to current 8, 8+ and X
Samsung: S6/S6 Edge/S7/S7 Edge/S8/S8 Plus/A3 2017/A5 2017/J3 2017/J5 2017/A8
Huawei: P10/P Smart
Sony: XZ1/XZ Premium

MarkR

Yeah, it's a slim hope. I might do some tinkering around, see if I amend the details the phone to mask as a supported handset, see if any auto downloads kick in.

DECEiFER

MarkR wrote: »

Yeah, it's a slim hope. I might do some tinkering around, see if I amend the details the phone to mask as a supported handset, see if any auto downloads kick in.

Definitely worth a shot.

DECEiFER

An update for anyone interested:

I made the switch to Eir before the deadline on a 30-day SIM-Only plan with my unlocked S8. As predicted, the stock unbranded firmware didn't have WiFi calling capabilities and since Eir were the last of the Irish carriers to release their Oreo update for the S8, I waited until that happened and noticed today on samfirmware.com that it was available for download. So I went ahead and flashed it at home, and voila, the feature is now available (see the attached screenshot). No downtime bar the time it took to flash and do the initial phone setup again.

MarkR

Interesting, I was able to enable the same feature on my handset via an amendment to the build.prop file, but no functional change. 

I think there is some form of handshake, initiated network side, depending on handset, that allows it to run. 

ED E

VOLTE is done by a standard, unfortunately VoWIFI which is a very similar tech is done by different standards by different vendors. Can't just enable a flag on a generic client. 

MarkR

DECEiFER wrote: »

An update for anyone interested:

I made the switch to Eir before the deadline on a 30-day SIM-Only plan with my unlocked S8. As predicted, the stock unbranded firmware didn't have WiFi calling capabilities and since Eir were the last of the Irish carriers to release their Oreo update for the S8, I waited until that happened and noticed today on samfirmware.com that it was available for download. So I went ahead and flashed it at home, and voila, the feature is now available (see the attached screenshot). No downtime bar the time it took to flash and do the initial phone setup again.

I'd be curious to see is there any additional lines in the build.prop file. Is your wifi calling working?