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How Does Wifi Calling Work
- Thread starter Irishappletech
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Throughput is an essential factor considered for wifi calling. If your on a wifi network that has very little or no data throughput it will use cellular. I've gotten into the habit that if I see a streaming show stutter/freeze I will glance at my phone to see if its on wifi calling, if its not there is a good chance the internet is down/bad and its not the streaming service or device.
Every cellular provider handles wifi calling slightly differently through their firmware (carrier updates on the iPhone). Some carriers lean more toward cellular, some more toward Wifi. For me anymore Verizon leverages Wifi calling more than they used to. I currently have 3-4 (full) bars of LTE and I'm on Wifi Calling. With VoLTE it will transition from Wifi calling to LTE fairly smoothly, however dropping back to their 3g (CDMA) and the call will drop.
And bandwidth used is minimal. I think I read 12kbps is about the max (going off memory I could be wrong) which is why VoLTE works so well. The internet can be at unusable levels and VoLTE still work just fine.
Your carrier may just prefer using their towers instead of switching to Wifi but you'll need to check with them.
What do you mean throughput. I was connected to WiFi calling it dropped back to regular phone signal now back to WiFi calling again it’s wierd
Data throughput, bandwidth.
If you dont have data on wifi it knows this and wont use it.
Don't confuse that with the fastest wins though. It depends on your carrier and how they chose to implement wifi calling. Voice doesn't require much data so it maybe set up so if cellular is enough it uses it, if not it looks for Wifi. Another cellular provider may be set up so when cellular data is below wifi data it will use wifi.
Overall it shouldn't matter too much in use because if coded properly you'll always have more than enough data for a phone call. I'm assuming there is some sort of agreement with ISP's and/or a server dedicated for wifi calling for the cellular provider because not all providers even offer Wifi calling.
IF you want to force it to wifi calling. From control center enable airplane mode, then reenable wifi. Cellular will be off and it should hop onto Wifi calling. Be careful though, if you forget to turn airplane mode off you might miss a bunch of calls when you leave wifi area. This typically isn't necessary.
Thanks very much for the reply. I have good internet speed 70 down and about 20 up. And I can browse the web under WiFi but WiFi calling intermittently drops in and out w
Like I said its probably normal and just the way your carrier is handling wifi calling.
Depending on how its implemented its not an always on feature, its a feature that is activated when the cellular connection isn't available. Its not "dropping in and out", its switching between using wifi or cellular. There isn't much benefit to using one or the other (expect for reception of course) for voice calls. If anything cellular can offer the peace of mind knowing your actual location will be used in an emergency call. Emergency calls will try to use cellular anyway and if unavailable they will use wifi calling.
Although I guess I should suggest going to settings > general > about. Look at the carrier version. This will check for a carrier update if available but I doubt anything will change even if there is an update.
WiFi Calling as it names imply only activate when it is connected to WiFi. Carriers can set priority either to prefer WiFi Calling over cellular or cellular over WiFi Calling.
Possible your carrier is like T-Mobile where it prefers WiFi Calling only if cellular is 2 or lower signal bars to improve call quality.
Pay attention to cellular signal and WiFi Calling
No as you can see from my screenshot I’ve pretty good coverage for cellular and it’s showing WiFi calling. And I’ve had full bars of coverage and it would still show. Perhaps it’s a bug of some sort
However it works perfectly majority of the time. Sometimes it has issues but overall I can’t complain. I’ve good service anyway so it’s no major deal but still a cool feature I love to use
However it works perfectly majority of the time. Sometimes it has issues but overall I can’t complain. I’ve good service anyway so it’s no major deal but still a cool feature I love to use
Think of your wireless network as if it were a road. If your road is a 10-lane highway, you will get a strong wifi signal. If the highway is empty, you will speed along. If the highway is full of other vehicles, you will most likely move at a crawl. in both cases, you will have a strong wifi signal.
Thanks. Like now I’m connected to WiFi but it doesn’t show WiFi calling in the carrier name
As mentioned before, that's likely because your mobile signal is good enough (and/or your WiFi calling signal isn't as good) for your device to stay with your mobile connection.
Yeah that makes sense. However I can still browse the web fine and speeds are quite fast at present under WiFi
That's all good and fine given that the mobile signal can be good enough for it not to feel that it needs to switch to use WiFi.
Ok so what your saying is even though it’s quite fast for browsing etc. the signal on the phone could actually be stronger than the WiFi calling signal
As various posts earlier in the thread have mentioned, it can depend on carrier settings, but generally speaking in many cases if the mobile signal is good enough then WiFi calling won't be used.