No WiFi calling on T-Mobile’s Google Nexus 4 is not carrier’s fault

Remember our story on how T-Mobile’s Google Nexus not supporting WiFi calling, a feature that many folks on T-Mobile have been taking advantage of whenever they do not have a decent phone signal and yet are in the vicinity of a fast Internet connection? Well, it seems that we might have been sniffing down the wrong trail, and would like to take note of any confusion which could have arose from our previous story. While T-Mobile did confirm that there will be no WiFi calling support on the Google Nexus 4, this has nothing to do with T-Mobile restricting this feature from the Nexus 4.

After all, a Nexus device from Google and whichever hardware manufacturer that they decide to partner with generally does not receive any input from mobile carriers, so T-Mobile was probably in the dark like you and me during the development of the Google Nexus 4. This means there was no input from T-Mobile for the Nexus 4’s manufacturing process, hence the lack of support right from the get go for such a feature. All in all, this should not come across as a surprise as it is a pure Google device, hence no carrier-provided software will be part of it.

Also, some folks did mention that WiFi calling smartphones do come with a specific kernels that was developed by the carriers themselves, and if you have a high level of technical knowledge, tinkering around with 3rd party kernels and custom ROMs, who knows, the Google Nexus 4 might just be able to handle WiFi calling after all.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Nexus 4, T-Mobile, WiFi