No wifi texting on android or Windows devices o...

slbaker84 Jan 18, 2017 2:31 AM

Member Since: Apr 18, 2014

I am a flight attendant and i fly international flights every week. With wifi calling turned on, t mobile allows you to have unlimited texting while in flight on Gogoair inflight. Starting in March of this year, my Samsung Galaxy S6 stopped working on international flights. It still works on domestic flights. After multiple calls to T mobile and gogo, there has been no solution. After talking to several other T mobile customers, it appears that sometime in March, anyone with an Android or Windows phone lost the ability to text inflight on international flights only. We can connect to the inflight wifi,but we receive error codes when trying to enable wifi calling feature Which must be enabled to work. People with IPhones are not experiencing this issue. The error code says we have not made a call over the wifi previous to connecting to make the feature work onboard. I have made multiple wifi calls as have the other customers I've spoken with. Since this is an issue only with Android and Windows phones, is this a software issue and is T mobile planning on fixing the problem? Every time I call I my case is escalated after attempting the same fixes repeatedly with no results. The agents never call back and each time I call they act like its the first they've ever heard of the issue.

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Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights

tmo_chris Sep 16, 2016 8:36 AM (in response to slbaker84)

Member Since: Nov 19, 2011
Hey slbaker84,

Is sounds like you have definitely gone through the troubleshooting process of elimination! What I find weird is that Wi-Fi texting works on domestic flights and not the international ones. What this tells me is that the service is properly provisioned on the T-Mobile side as it would not work on either flight type if it were not. This still does not explain why iPhone users are not seeing this issue but iPhone to iPhone messaging uses data and if they are connected to the in-flight Wi-Fi, they would not need to enable Wi-Fi calling to text other iPhones. You mentioned that you receive error codes when attempting to enable Wi-Fi calling on your device, do you happen to recall what these error codes were?
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- Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights
  
  slbaker84 Sep 16, 2016 12:29 PM (in response to tmo_chris)
  
  Member Since: Apr 18, 2014
  
  Gogo uses a different wifi system on international flights. It is not the same as domestic flights. I stopped at a T-Mobile store today and they told me it is a known issue for Android and Windows phones. They also said that there is no communication about the issue or when the problem will be resolved.
  
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  - Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights
    
    tmo_chris Sep 22, 2016 1:17 PM (in response to slbaker84)
    
    Member Since: Nov 19, 2011
    
    I did a bit more digging here and our internal information on T-Mobile inflight texting is as follows:
    
    Supported airlines
    T-Mobile Inflight Texting is offered by these domesticcarriers:
    Alaska Airlines
    American Airlines
    Delta Air Lines
    US Airways
    Virgin America
    Not all flights on these airlines offer the service. To check if your upcoming flight has T-Mobile Inflight Texting, contact your airline.
    
    I apologize for not seeing this earlier but it looks as if our inflight texting is only for domestic flights iPhone users are most likely taking advantage of iMessage which is a data based service and does not require WiFi calling to function.
    
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    - Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights
      
      slbaker84 Sep 22, 2016 2:33 PM (in response to tmo_chris)
      
      Member Since: Apr 18, 2014
      
      Chris,
      I think "domestic" carrier may be in reference to "US " carriers. This feature worked perfectly fine on my international flights until the upgrade occurred in March. It still works fine on iPhones. My fellow crewmembers wirh iphones remain able to enable their wifi calling feature and continue to text throughout the flight once their one hour free WiFi has expired. At no time isince March, has anyone with an Android or Windows phone been able to enable their wifi calling and use their standard messaging app while in flight. The only messaging app that will work (and only for that one free hour) is hangouts or FB message which are data messaging apps. Tmobile distinctly offers the ability to continue to text throughout your flight once your one hour free is over. It just doesn't work on any Android or Windows phone. Not even Hangouts or FB messaging.
      
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      - Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights
        
        tmo_chris Sep 22, 2016 2:42 PM (in response to slbaker84)
        
        Member Since: Nov 19, 2011
        
        I know this is a super weird one but I think you're right with the domestic being that the carrier themselves are domestically based. I know you have already spoken with tech support on this in the past with no results but there is not going to be much we can do on a user forum. I would recommend that you Contact Us again and see about having one of your previous tickets escalated. If you have some example dates/times of the failures it will be super helpful for our engineers to so they distinguish when the failures are occurring rather than seeing that WiFi texting is working when you are not on an international flight and assuming that it is resolved.
        
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        Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights
        
        tmo_chris Sep 28, 2016 9:10 AM (in response to tmo_chris)
        
        Member Since: Nov 19, 2011
        
        Hey there! Any luck with getting your ticket escalated with our tech support team?
        
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        Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights
        
        slbaker84 Sep 28, 2016 10:26 AM (in response to tmo_chris)
        
        Member Since: Apr 18, 2014
        
        I haven't had the chance to call. I have had 2 deaths in the family to
        deal with. Phone issue is on the back burner for now. I will eventually
        see if they can do anything else.
        
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        Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights
        
        tmo_chris Sep 28, 2016 10:46 AM (in response to slbaker84)
        
        Member Since: Nov 19, 2011
        
        Oh no! I am sorry for your loss Phone issues can definitely take the back burner for now.
        
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        Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights
        
        slbaker84 Sep 28, 2016 11:35 AM (in response to tmo_chris)
        
        Member Since: Apr 18, 2014
        
        Thank you.
        
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        Re: No wifi texting on android or Windows devices on Gogoair international flights
        
        tmo_marissa Oct 4, 2016 10:44 AM (in response to slbaker84)
        
        Member Since: Sep 7, 2016
        
        Hi slbaker84,
        
        I wanted to touch base with you - we do routine maintenance on threads that haven't had activity for a while. I just wanted to echo Chris's condolences - so sorry to read about your loss. Please let us know if we can offer any assistance later on. Best wishes to you & yours.
        
        - Marissa
        
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