Carrier AT&T Wifi Calling: Activation imminent?

[zorinlynx]

I bit the bullet and upgraded my phone to the beta. Wi-Fi calling is working in Miami, FL!

As a network admin by trade I got curious and did some sniffing around. It seems WiFi calling is implemented using an IPSec tunnel. From what I can tell (it's encrypted, so you can't tell much) it's tunneling IPv6 over your IPv4 WiFi. If you open Network Tools (from Hurricane Electric) you can see that your phone will have a couple of IPSec tunnel interfaces with world routable IPv6 addresses.

Basically, AT&T is doing VoIP in its truest form, giving everyone an IPv6 (whether native on cellular, or through a tunnel when on Wifi) address, and routing calls and text messages over that.

There's a lot going on, and a lot that can go wrong, which is why they are probably rolling it out to beta users first and not to everyone at once.

 

[SRLMJ23]

I bit the bullet and upgraded my phone to the beta. Wi-Fi calling is working in Miami, FL!

As a network admin by trade I got curious and did some sniffing around. It seems WiFi calling is implemented using an IPSec tunnel. From what I can tell (it's encrypted, so you can't tell much) it's tunneling IPv6 over your IPv4 WiFi. If you open Network Tools (from Hurricane Electric) you can see that your phone will have a couple of IPSec tunnel interfaces with world routable IPv6 addresses.

Basically, AT&T is doing VoIP in its truest form, giving everyone an IPv6 (whether native on cellular, or through a tunnel when on Wifi) address, and routing calls and text messages over that.

There's a lot going on, and a lot that can go wrong, which is why they are probably rolling it out to beta users first and not to everyone at once.

Very interesting! Thanks for explaining that.

 

[hansenc]

i've been at 1-2 bars all night @ home and still wont kick in automatically. like others if I turn on airplane mode it does seem to enable and stay enabled till i leave my wifi network.

 

[gsmornot]

That is very odd. I have a Alpine aftermarket system in my car with bluetooth or you can directly connect a iPod and control it all from the Alpine Deck. I do not understand why your bluetooth does that because of wifi?? I walk out to my car and the phone knows so it has Music ready for me and if do bluetooth it works fine or if I switch to the iPod that is directly connected everything is fine. Have you tried resetting network connections and possibly all connections and settings? Something is just not right with the way your phone is handling things. Bluetooth and WiFi are totally different connections so they should not interfere with each other like that. What kind of car/deck do you have? Just trying to help!

Thank you. It's cool though, it comes and goes this way with release updates. All was well for a while back on 8.x. It works too if you turn off location services. Wifi is faster since its in the control center. It's strange but I'm not alone. The suggestion to kill wifi on calls came from someone else's discovery.

 

[gsmornot]

i've been at 1-2 bars all night @ home and still wont kick in automatically. like others if I turn on airplane mode it does seem to enable and stay enabled till i leave my wifi network.

1-2 bars are enough for calls so it should stay on cellular. It will use wifi only when you're in conditions for calls to drop or fail all together. (Or it should wait until then)

 

[Dominick624]

But wouldn't it save battery if it were to simply use wifi calling, rather than keep you on a 1-2 bar connection? Since the phone has to use more power to achieve a better cell signal?

 

[gigapocket1]

Just got mines activated.. Living in Orlando.. Billing is based out of Memphis. Mobile share plan

 

[luckydcxx]

Activated on Long Island, NY and NYC.

 

[stlblufan]

Activated on Long Island, NY and NYC.

That's strange, I am in NYC and am still unable to activate.

 

[luckydcxx]

That's strange, I am in NYC and am still unable to activate.

That is strange. I'm was in queens when I activated. Maybe it has something to do with the plan. I am on a mobile share plan.

 

[Dominicanyor]

Seems like this is limited to the latest iOS 9 beta so far.

Ok thanks!!

 

[bushman4]

Would somebody be good enough to post a picture of their screen on WIFI calling.

 

[hansenc]

read online that some phones (guessing android) all you to set a preference of wifi or cellular. is this an option on tmobile wifi

But wouldn't it save battery if it were to simply use wifi calling, rather than keep you on a 1-2 bar connection? Since the phone has to use more power to achieve a better cell signal?

Same thoughts I was having. I saw some Android screenshots that allow you to set priority over one vs. the other.

 

[andyw715]

Yeah it would be nice (in the WiFI settings) to always connect WiFi calling when connected to certain SSIDs
i.e home and work, always connect.

You would think carriers would like this, to get some percentage of handsets off the towers.

 

[Harthag]

Would somebody be good enough to post a picture of their screen on WIFI calling.

Here you go.

 

[fireitfox]

SF Bay Area here, I was able to activate this morning! I have no cell signal at work, and have been using it all morning!

In which city in bay area are you getting wifi calling? I am tried to activate in Fremont, Sunnyvale and Cupertino, i get the message wifi calling is not available in your area.

 

[edulinka]

It doesn't matter where you leave. Here from chat with ATT support

WIFI calling has been opened to all markets and requires the setup on this end which we confirmed. The phone must be an iPhone 6 or 6 plus with iOS 9 picking up and picking up and AT&T LTE signal as well.

 

[JM3581]

After calling AT&T I was finally able to activate it in Philadelphia. They had my phone number still associated with the IMEI of my old 5s instead of my 6 plus in their system. Once they corrected the IMEI i was able to active it right away.

 

[jpsmith76]

I called At&T and after some checking they said that you have to be in an HD Voice are (Both phone number and physical location) They also verified that my correct phone is listed and that VoLTE is enabled on my account. So, in Huntsville AL with a Birmingham AL number, I will have to wait awhile longer.

 

[ericgtr12]

Wonder how this will play with Micro-cell, anyone else using it?

 

[jpsmith76]

Since the beta dropped with the new carrier settings profile two weeks ago, my iPhone 6 does not like to lock onto my 3G microcell. It still will, but it does not prefer it like it used to.

Wonder how this will play with Micro-cell, anyone else using it?

 

[theshoehorn]

I called At&T and after some checking they said that you have to be in an HD Voice are (Both phone number and physical location) They also verified that my correct phone is listed and that VoLTE is enabled on my account. So, in Huntsville AL with a Birmingham AL number, I will have to wait awhile longer.

I live in a location with no HDVoice, or was in a location with HDVoice at the time I activated it... So from my experience this is false... But I could be wrong...

 

[freeskier93]

I was able to turn on wifi calling earlier this week, initially it didn't seem like it ever switched over but now it seems to always be on wifi calling. I hover between 2 and 3 bars where I live. I don't think it's as simple as bar threshold either, I suspect there is some learning involved (that seems to be the theme of iOS 9 is personalized learning).

 

[edulinka]

ATT told me No wifi calling for unlimited data only to share plans

 

[ericgtr12]

Since the beta dropped with the new carrier settings profile two weeks ago, my iPhone 6 does not like to lock onto my 3G microcell. It still will, but it does not prefer it like it used to.

Won't WIFI calling negate the need for Microcell, or am I not understanding how it works properly?