"You won’t be able to use it abroad"
"You won’t be able to use it abroad, and the minutes spent nattering away will come out of your monthly allowance"
"Must protect our roaming income."
EE today said it will be the first UK mobile network to roll out full-blooded next-generation Wi-Fi calling. Subscribers will not need to install any special apps: their phones should be able to seamlessly and automatically send and receive text messages, and make and receive calls, via wireless networks when there is no …
""Must protect our roaming income.""
Isn't it more likely that whatever gateway and hand-off protocol has been setup between the networks won't work if the WiFi part is in another country? I can't see how you'd be able to hand off from WiFi and back onto cellular if you're roaming - the foreign network would have no idea what was going on.
even more competition for WiFi Channels
A scan of the airwaves from where I am sitting now reveals
19 different WiFi Networks. 4 VM, 8 BT and 9 others (where the owner has taken the trouble to change the SSID)
Of these 15 of them are all competing for channel 6 as the default channel (mine is setup to use channel 2)
Thankfully, none of the networks are open.
Need to filter those results, my AP supports 3 SSID's on each of the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands...
What I love is how many people simply plug in their AP and let it auto select channels. Me? I do a scan and then fix my AP on to specific channels. Now my neighbours are effectively sharing two of the four (EU) 2.4GHz non-overlapping channels, with constant channel swapping, whilst my AP generates a solid signal on my chosen channels...
"What I love is how many people simply plug in their AP and let it auto select channels."
Fools! It's not as if the technology could and should sort itself out without having to have its hand held by a meat sack, eh? And that's before we come to the rubbish security defaults, and loophole-addled firmware.
I suppose almost all aspects of Wifi are a bit like all aspects of USB connectors, most "smart TVs" and any multimedia browser add-on - classic bits of Friday afternoon engineering, let loose on an unsuspecting public because it was all too much effort to do the job properly.
I had a BB 9780 on Orange, and yes there was some geo-locking - but that only happened after 1 week outside the UK.
I miss it on the Q10, which should now have wifi calling capabilities but obviously the carrier network needs to support them too.Will it work with VoLTE? Not sure, but then if BT buy out EE indeed, then there's definitely no way I will still be with them by the time they support it.
Reading the anouncement on http://community.ee.co.uk/t5/EE-Community-Blog/Three-new-smartphones-to-launch-with-WiFi-Calling/ba-p/274506 it would appear that unless you not only buy a compatible handset, but buy it from EE, you won't get access to the service.
Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Bummer.
Further speculation on that website suggests that because network operators aren't allowed to mess around with iOS, all iPhone 6s should work with EE's VOWIFI- though that might be optimistic, since EE have been known to lock iPhones to their network even though they have been bought elsewhere.
"Dear EE. I have just moved home. I don't get an EE signal except on the widow sill of the upstairs bathroom. If you don't allow VOWIFI on my current hardware-compatible handset, I will have no option but to take my business to Vodaphone"
As I understand it, MS and Apple have put the functionality into the firmware already (or it will be in the next release), but some Android devices haven't.
EE are putting the functionality into their "branded" firmware they put on the locked handsets they sell.
It's not clear if the functionality will work if you happen to own a handset that does have the functionality but which isn't EE branded, or if they would block it.
General topic of conversation in my brother's village at the weekend:
"I've got no signal"
"Neither have I"
"Who are you with?"
"EE"
"Me to"
...
"I just came round to tell you I've got no signal"
..
"She's got no signal, you'll have to call her on the landline"
"I can't, I've got no signal"
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Is that seamless as in it will switch between cell towers and wi-fi mid call, or seamless as in you don't have to launch an app because they've already installed it for you on your EE branded phone? Because as far as I can tell it's actually the latter, and the only thing to distinguish it from 3's identical service is that EE will hide the app that does the work.
As I understand it, you use the normal phone app to make the call, rather than for example O2's ToGo app, but it doesn't hand-over between mobile and wifi networks, or even between different wifi access points on the same network, Same as Skype or any other VOIP service I've tried.
I've been using the service for a few days on my sim-only contract on an unlocked iPhone. It works really well - so well in fact that you can put the phone in airplane mode at home, turn on wifi and forget about the "phone network" completely.
The service is really useful in the many modern buildings that have poor internal coverage even if the network is good outside - the increasing use of lots of steel, glass with metal coatings and foil backed insulation all conspire to stopping good phone signals indoors.