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Carrier AT&T Wi-Fi Calling. Features and Limitations.

WolfSnap

WolfSnap

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 18, 2012
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SoCal
I enabled wifi calling on AT&T on my iOS 9 GM iPhone 6 Plus. Works well, but, I haven't been able to (yet) test it in a few different scenarios, and wanting to know if anyone else has figured this out:

1) Lets say you're away from your emergency address and using wifi calling. Let's say you're at a starbucks making a call to 911. Will the phone send the address you previously gave it (your home), or will it use the GPS coordinates and send that info to 911?

2) Same thing, but you're making a normal call. The Wifi sucks (slow). Will the phone switch to cellular automatically?

3) If I initiate a call on wifi, can I leave the wifi area and seamlessly transition to cellular?

4) If I'm on cellular, and enter a wifi area -- will the phone switch seamlessly?

Thanks!
 
mconk

mconk

macrumors 6502
Mar 10, 2009
371
69
Virginia
Honestly, we won't know the specifics of theses questions until AT&T officially announces WiFi calling as an actual feature. Apple has done their part, just waiting on the carrier to catch up! Several people here have spoken/chatted with AT&T reps about this, and I haven't seen one person who got a rep who even knew that this feature was included in the beta, or that it's working for (some) people. I personally am still unable to activate the feature, with two completely different accounts. On my personal Mobile Share account I get the 'We can't turn on wifi calling for this account' message, yet on a business account with unlimited, I get the 'Unavailable in your area' message, even though others in my area have been able to turn this feature on.
 
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theshoehorn

macrumors 6502a
Jul 6, 2010
505
490
I have it on... Right now it seems that AT&T has it configured to prefer cellular if it's strong enough. What's supposed to happen is if you're in an are that supports VoLTE, it will seamlessly transfer from Wifi to cellular. Never will transfer from cellular to wifi. I'm not certain on the 911 thing, so can't comment on #1. I also haven't had crappy wifi when i've used to so I can't comment on #2.
 
mconk

mconk

macrumors 6502
Mar 10, 2009
371
69
Virginia
WolfSnap said:
I enabled wifi calling on AT&T on my iOS 9 GM iPhone 6 Plus. Works well, but, I haven't been able to (yet) test it in a few different scenarios, and wanting to know if anyone else has figured this out:

1) Lets say you're away from your emergency address and using wifi calling. Let's say you're at a starbucks making a call to 911. Will the phone send the address you previously gave it (your home), or will it use the GPS coordinates and send that info to 911?

2) Same thing, but you're making a normal call. The Wifi sucks (slow). Will the phone switch to cellular automatically?

3) If I initiate a call on wifi, can I leave the wifi area and seamlessly transition to cellular?

4) If I'm on cellular, and enter a wifi area -- will the phone switch seamlessly?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
1.) For T-Mobile at least, you have to add an e911 address to your account. If you're away from home, the dispatcher may or may not be able to see your location - and from what I understand, this is a technical issue at the level of your local police department/emergency service. Most now have the tech to snag your phones location when dialing 911 over cell, some don't. So I would presume the same would apply while over Wi-Fi.

2.) Not sure if you've noticed the WiFi Assist that popped up in the iOS 9 beta, but the phone *should* be able to switch for you, based on wifi signal strength and cellular strength. But we can't exactly verify this for sure yet.

3 & 4 seem to differ between carriers. I've read some overseas folks on EE (I believe, maybe Rogers) are able to leave WiFi and switch to a cellular connection, as well as leave a cellular connection and seamlessly switch to WiFi.

T-Mobile in theory is supposed to be capable #3, but have heard many say that their calls drop after leaving WiFi.
 
WolfSnap

WolfSnap

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Original poster
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Thanks for the info.. Wish there was more info about this available.....
 
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bentleyjackson

macrumors newbie
Feb 6, 2015
21
2
Question for you guys... WiFi calling is activated and enabled on 4 phones on my account, but none of them work with WiFi calling. Don't ever see the AT&T WiFi logo even when in Airplane mode with WiFi enabled and connected. Tried reset network settings, even restored a device and set up as new, and tried multiple WiFi locations and networks. AT&T says all feature codes and everything on their system looks good.

Any ideas?
 
mconk

mconk

macrumors 6502
Mar 10, 2009
371
69
Virginia
bentleyjackson said:
Question for you guys... WiFi calling is activated and enabled on 4 phones on my account, but none of them work with WiFi calling. Don't ever see the AT&T WiFi logo even when in Airplane mode with WiFi enabled and connected. Tried reset network settings, even restored a device and set up as new, and tried multiple WiFi locations and networks. AT&T says all feature codes and everything on their system looks good.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
This hasn't officially rolled out from AT&T yet...once they actually flip the switch and go live for everyone, we'll finally have some more details on how it actually works.
 
gwhizkids

gwhizkids

macrumors G5
Jun 21, 2013
13,318
21,514
I'm reasonably certain that this feature will be activated by carrier setting, especially for those of us on iPhone 5/5s who didn't get the opportunity to be in the beta. Question is whether this happens on Weds, some other date in the next few weeks or only when/if AT&T prevails upon the FCC to allow wifi calling before the RTT replacement technology debuts in 2017.
 
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WolfSnap

WolfSnap

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Original poster
Sep 18, 2012
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gwhizkids said:
I'm reasonably certain that this feature will be activated by carrier setting, especially for those of us on iPhone 5/5s who didn't get the opportunity to be in the beta. Question is whether this happens on Weds, some other date in the next few weeks or only when/if AT&T prevails upon the FCC to allow wifi calling before the RTT replacement technology debuts in 2017.
Click to expand...
I don't think 5 /5s will get wifi calling at all. They don't do VoLTE, which is needed, I believe...
 
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Dominick624

macrumors regular
Feb 10, 2014
103
8
I turned it off for now. I would get a call from someone while I'm on AT&T Wi-Fi, where I could hear them, but they couldn't hear me.
 
gsmornot

gsmornot

macrumors 68040
Sep 29, 2014
3,672
3,853
WolfSnap said:
On this page : http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/ it shows that the 5s will do wifi calling, and yet it's also listed as NOT supporting wifi calling later on the page.

So, no idea which is right....
Click to expand...
AT&T WiFi calling is in trial at the moment. They have limited the trial to phones that support VoLTE and to iOS. The 5S should support WiFi calling so it should receive support once the service is rolled out for general consumption. I can't see why not unless they are going to require the devices to be VoLTE capable. VoLTE will be needed for hand-off from WiFi to a cell network. Guessing here but it seems like it would be supported on your phone in the future but I don't know any more than what I have been able to find in reading/searching.
 
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gwhizkids

gwhizkids

macrumors G5
Jun 21, 2013
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gsmornot said:
AT&T WiFi calling is in trial at the moment. They have limited the trial to phones that support VoLTE and to iOS. The 5S should support WiFi calling so it should receive support once the service is rolled out for general consumption. I can't see why not unless they are going to require the devices to be VoLTE capable. VoLTE will be needed for hand-off from WiFi to a cell network. Guessing here but it seems like it would be supported on your phone in the future but I don't know any more than what I have been able to find in reading/searching.
Click to expand...
I think this is a very thoughtful and cogent response. I also think its correct!
 
techwarrior

techwarrior

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Jul 30, 2009
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Colorado
Dominick624 said:
I turned it off for now. I would get a call from someone while I'm on AT&T Wi-Fi, where I could hear them, but they couldn't hear me.
Click to expand...

I initially had this issue as well, but it seemed to improve with the iOS9.1 Beta. Further, ATT mentioned improvements were made.

You might try again.
 
S

sta1210

macrumors member
Jun 12, 2015
54
3
Corte Madera, California
I tried activating WiFi calling on the current 9.1 beta, and while I now have the option of WiFi in phone settings, when I select it - there is the message that WiFi calling is not available currently? Any thoughts on when this may be activated
 
PCtoMAC1

PCtoMAC1

macrumors 6502
Mar 16, 2012
423
181
Is it worth signing up/downloading the beta to get wifi calling and then going back to 9.0.2? I have an iPhone 6.
 
gwhizkids

gwhizkids

macrumors G5
Jun 21, 2013
13,318
21,514
PCtoMAC1 said:
Is it worth signing up/downloading the beta to get wifi calling and then going back to 9.0.2? I have an iPhone 6.
Click to expand...
I believe that if you didn't use wifi calling during the beta for 9, you'll have to wait until they go public (after the FCC rules on it).
 
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