How Does Wifi Calling Work

[Irishappletech]

Hi. Am i correct to say that Wifi calling will work on the phone when it feels one of the 2 signals is better than the other essentially use whichever of the 2 signals is stronger so for example if my cellular connection is quite strong but at the time my wifi isnt will it use cellular signal to make the call over wifi calling or should it use wifi calling regardless

in short does the phone decide which is stronger for the call or does it prioritise Wifi calling over another. Ive noticed that my wifi calling doesnt always connect to my home wifi majority it does but sometimes it doesnt. also does wifi calling require a certain amount of internet wifi speed and bandwidth

Thanks

my Phone carrier is "Eir" who are an irish mobile operator

 

[CobraPA]

In my experience it’s not that smart. If WiFi is connected it will try to use WiFi when you have WiFi calling enabled for cellular. If the WiFi is bad your calls will fail until you manually disable WiFi.

 

[Irishappletech]

yeah that what i thought the head of my carriers mobile department told me essneitlaly its up to the device to pick whichever signal is better if it deems one over the other to be better it will use that

 

[Chazzle]

It depends on your carrier and which behavior they decide to use in their carrier firmware. For instance, T-Mobile used to always prefer WiFi calling if you had the setting turned on, but with the most recent carrier update that was introduced in I think 11.2.5, now WiFi calling only flips on if your cellular signal is 2 bars or less.

 

[dannyyankou]

If you're on a wifi call and you're phone disconnects from the wifi, the call drops. That's my only complaint.

 

[C DM]

If you're on a wifi call and you're phone disconnects from the wifi, the call drops. That's my only complaint.

I believe that also depends on the carrier as well and perhaps coverage in the area.

 

[dannyyankou]

I believe that also depends on the carrier as well and perhaps coverage in the area.

Even if I have good service, it doesn't seamlessly switch to the cellular network like Apple claimed in 2014.

 

[C DM]

Even if I have good service, it doesn't seamlessly switch to the cellular network like Apple claimed in 2014.

That might be the carrier part. I have no issues with going from a WiFi call to an VoLTE call using Verizon for example.

 

[Chazzle]

I believe that also depends on the carrier as well and perhaps coverage in the area.

Even if I have good service, it doesn't seamlessly switch to the cellular network like Apple claimed in 2014.

C DM is right. It’s carrier dependent. T-mobile WiFi calling used to drop the call when they first introduced it, but now (past year) it switches to cellular with no problem.

 

[dannyyankou]

C DM is right. It’s carrier dependent. T-mobile WiFi calling used to drop the call when they first introduced it, but now (past year) it switches to cellular with no problem.

Right but I have verizon

 

[Chazzle]

Right but I have verizon

Okay, so does @C DM and his is working fine. Like he said, it’s probably an issue with having a strong enough cellular signal when you transition, and maybe VoLTE needs to be working?

 

[zorinlynx]

My experience with AT&T has been that it depends on more than just signal level.

I suspect WiFi calling is used when the current cel tower is overloaded or not providing good service to the phone. I've seen WiFi calling active with full signal bars several times.

 

[Irishappletech]

• Yeah the seamless handover is enabled by my carrier either but it’s in the pipeline. Apparently it requires volte to work
• 
  
• 
  

• My experience with AT&T has been that it depends on more than just signal level.

I suspect WiFi calling is used when the current cel tower is overloaded or not providing good service to the phone. I've seen WiFi calling active with full signal bars several times.

 

[Statusnone88]

• Yeah the seamless handover is enabled by my carrier either but it’s in the pipeline. Apparently it requires volte to work
• 
  

So for AT&T, you must be in an HD Voice (VoLTE) area and the call will hand off when you are leaving WiFi. If not, the call will drop.

Also, AT&T WiFi calling typically kicks in if signal bars are sub 3, but in high capacity areas, if your WiFi signal is reliable enough it’ll always default to WiFi calling.

I’d say my experience with WiFi calling has been pretty positive with AT&T.

 

[TiggrToo]

• Yeah the seamless handover is enabled by my carrier either but it’s in the pipeline. Apparently it requires volte to work
• 
  

Both both WiFi and VoLTE are forms of Voice over IP (VOIP) so you'd need to be able to transition from one network to another to make this seamless. Seamlessly transitioning from WiFi to CDMA\GSM just isn't possible since they're both totally different technologies.

 

[az431]

If you're on a wifi call and you're phone disconnects from the wifi, the call drops. That's my only complaint.

Doesn't work like that, and I've never seen this in years of using Wi-Fi calling.

In fact, AT&T specifically states that it will switch between the two during a call: https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM1063258

As does Sprint, https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/services/faqs-about-wi-fi-calling.html

 

[Broken Hope]

If the phone prefers WiFi Calling or not is up to the carrier, EE in the UK used to prefer WiFi Calling regardless of your mobile signal, since carrier update 32 it will now prefer cellular unless you have 2 bars or less than it will switch to WiFi Calling, since EE supports VoLTE over the entire UK calls that drop from WiFi Calling will seamlessly switch to 4G.

 

[iop]

I used to have issues with my wireless router which caused it to drop internet connectivity for a few minutes every once in a while (the wireless network stayed on during those times). The phone stayed connected to the wifi network, and never switched to LTE automatically despite being effectively disconnected. It was, however, with iOS 10, so I don't know if this behaviour is the same nowadays.

 

[Irishappletech]

I’ve noticed a majority of times it connects to WiFi when in my house but sometimes it doesn’t and may only connect about 40 Mins later. Would this be down to not a strong enough WiFi connection and when it dosen eventually connect the WiFi strength is strong

 

[C DM]

That was a good judgement

What judgement?

 

[Irishappletech]

So I notice if I toggle WiFi calling on and off it will connect perhaps this is a bug in 11.3.1

 

[C DM]

So I notice if I toggle WiFi calling on and off it will connect perhaps this is a bug in 11.3.1

What will connect? What's the mobile signal like at that time?

 

[Irishappletech]

Basically I’ve noticed that my WiFi calling doesn’t my always connect when connected to WiFi only sometimes but when I toggle WiFi calling on and off it will display as WiFi call beside the carrier name

I have 5 signal bars of strength so i don’t think it will come on due to strength it must come on regardless

 

[I7guy]

Both both WiFi and VoLTE are forms of Voice over IP (VOIP) so you'd need to be able to transition from one network to another to make this seamless. Seamlessly transitioning from WiFi to CDMA\GSM just isn't possible since they're both totally different technologies.

Wifi to VoLTE is not WiFi to cdma though. I’ll have to try it out to see what happens.

 

[JackieInCo]

I believe that also depends on the carrier as well and perhaps coverage in the area.

I tried porting out one of my three lines from T-Mobile to AT&T. Knowing that AT&T is very bad in my neighborhood, I figured I could use WiFi calling. I was only able to make a WiFi call maybe 50% of the time and that was mostly at night when my AT&T signal seemed to improve. During the day, my AT&T signal was so poor that WiFi calling would rarely work and many times if the call did go through, it was filled with static.

I ended up porting my line back to T-Mobile because of this.