“If you have an iPhone 6 (or 6 Plus) on T-Mobile’s network, Wi-Fi calls can be made and received exactly like cellular calls. And they will seamlessly be handed off to the cellular network when you leave Wi-Fi range, and vice versa,” Walt Mossberg writes for Re/code. “Also, on the new iPhones, the company’s improved-quality ‘HD calling’ will work on Wi-Fi calls, not just cellular ones.”
“T-Mobile calls this ‘Wi-Fi Unleashed,’ and I’ve been testing it — at home, and at public Wi-Fi hotspots in coffee shops, airports and hotels in Maryland and Massachusetts. In my tests, it worked just as advertised,” Mossberg writes. “My test T-Mobile iPhone 6 defaulted to placing all calls over Wi-Fi, if available, but with the same phone number the phone uses for cellular calls. These Wi-Fi calls could be made to any cellphone or landline phone, regardless of which network the other party was using.”
“There’s no special app to use, just Apple’s standard Phone and Messages features. And T-Mobile doesn’t charge extra for this service, or count Wi-Fi voice calls against your data usage. They do count against voice minutes, but the carrier notes that most of its current plans include unlimited voice minutes,” Mossberg writes. “And T-Mobile says the built-in Wi-Fi calling capability works overseas, so you can avoid cellular roaming charges.”
Much more in the full review – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Up yours AT&T and Verizon.
Well AT&T at least is rolling this out soon.. not sure with Verizon.
Wonder if Apple gave T-Mobile an exclusive for a few months?
T-Mobile is also smaller than AT&T and Verizon, they might’ve been able to upgrade their systems more quickly to support it.
AT&T’s Ralph decks Vega said they didn’t need to be aggressive in implementing wifi calling because they don’t have coverage issues. To me this is a prime example of their lack of concern for the experience of the individual user. I’ve also read that they say they delayed implementation to be sure it was a good customer experience. Another dodge. As Walt Mossberg recently reviewed, T-mobile’s implementation works seamlessly. AT&T couldn’t match this? Ir just didn’t want to?
Auto correct typo. Should be Ralph de la Vega, in case you want to write to him.
Wow… AT&T has international coverage? Just think… go to a place like Japan, get a pocket wifi and you have country-wide coverage on a US plan.
WI-FI calling could potentially be very disruptive… and essentially treats all traffic the same, over the internet.
It could be that AT&T didn’t want to do it.
10 years ago, AT&T wasn’t all that great (where I live)
now.. Verizon blows here. Their LTE is much slower than AT&T’s.
I can easily get 5-8mb/s faster download speed with AT&T LTE than with the Verizon Hotspot I had to get for work (Contract gone in 30 days! will replace with a new AT&T iPad Mini)
there *are* a few places around here where Verizon still has limited coverage, and AT&T has none. But there is a dead zone downtown that has ZERO verizon coverage.. buildings in the way or interference of some sort, doesn’t effect AT&T or Sprint, but Verizon has the nasty black hole.
In fairness, AT&T does have much more coverage than T-Mobile. Both companies (and Verizon) have the same incentive to do this… it gets customers off their own network while still either charging them or giving them the incentive for upgrading to unlimited. If you’re T-Mobile, this is huge in bridging the gap of lack of coverage. If you’re AT&T and Verizon the incentive is still there, just less of a rush and more of a “get it right” and prioritize.
Take a look at what AT&T did years ago with data. They knew they were behind in a lot of areas, but since getting 3G/4G coverage was going to take a long time and be subject to licensing and construction costs/delays, they saw that setting up free WiFi hotspots was an easy/quick answer for helping them in the meantime.
WiFi calling for T-Mobile is sort of the same thing. It’s not as good as actually having coverage everywhere, but it helps… a lot.
I spend a lot of time in a rural desert location where the cellular signals for all the major carriers are fair-to-poor. Fortunately, I have a decent Internet connection AND a new T-Mobile iPhone 6. I can attest to WiFi calling working as advertised (and it was one of the reasons I dropped AT&T after seven years). I look forward to using it overseas to save voice call costs, along with T-Mobile’s penalty-free international data. Suck on that, AT&T!
Hate to point this out but this has been on Android T-Mobile phones for a long time.
Sorry, but not like this where the call hands off seamlessly to LTE, that is new.
Yes easy to confuse.
I just can’t imagine AT&T not following suit. I really don’t think this would reduce the total number of cellular minutes with “rollover” and free “AT&T phone to phone” plans already in place. I think this would be in AT&T’s best interest- reducing bad reception in key places like business offices* and taking the load off of cell towers in congested areas.
I say give AT&T a few months to test this in “real world” situations to verify it “just works” and I’m almost sure they will implement this.
*I’ve used AT&T throughout the southeast, Texas and California and sure there are dead spots but all in all, they have an excellent cellular network. Oddly, some of my worse reception is at home. Wi-Fi calling will eliminate this.
Write to Ralph de la Vega and let him know he doesn’t really understand the end user experience when he says wifi calling is just an add on.
Try ralph.delavega@att.com
All I can say it I wrote to him there and the email didn’t bounce. But I didn’t get a respohse either.
Following suit sure, but timing is the question. If past is prologue then AT&T will wait years and only when they are at a competitive disadvantage. AT&T more than the other telecoms protects historical revenue streams before jumping on potential future ones. The original partnership with Apple was out of desperation on their part and Steve Jobs, more than any other single human, is responsible for keeping AT&T as a market player (and only real competition to Verizon).
ralph.delavega@att.com
Write to him and let him know the end user experience isn’t always as great as he seems to think.
I wrote to him and all I can say is that the email didn’t bounce and I didn’t get a response.
The most significant benefit I can see from this Voice-over-Wifi is the ability to make calls deep inside buildings (especially inside basements or other structures shielded from the mobile signal).
When it comes to mobile phone signal, Manhattan is one of the best covered pieces of American land, but inside many buildings, that signal can be marginal to non-existent, even with carriers such as Verizon. Meanwhile, literally every office tower has plentiful and strong WiFi coverage in all parts of the building. This feature extends voice calling dramatically, which makes a huge difference for all those who spend most of their life at work in one of these structures.
As for foreign WiFi, it will probably be useful to some people, but I’m not sure it is very practical for most. When you travel abroad, you need the ability to communicate locally. Being able to make and receive calls on your American number is nice, but expensive, both for you and those that call you; you still have to call a foreign number from your American phone, and locals still have to make a long-distance call to America in order to talk to you. I prefer using a local SIM card (with my unlocked iPhone).
This has been available for years from T-Mobile, including handing-off calls from WiFi to cellular — but only on certain devices that support it. AT&T and the iPhone should have supported this from the get-go; it would take a HUGE burden off of overloaded cell-towers, since virtually everyone now has WiFi at home and at work.
T-Mobile has such spotty coverage in my area (the New York metropolitan area) that if it wasn’t for Wi-Fi calling, I would have no coverage in my home.