Voice on WiFi?

SLIKRICK · ‎07-27-2008

I thought I remembered somewhere here mentioned that there was upcoming functionality where voice can be transmitted over WiFi in the event of poor cellular connectivity. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks in advance.

Planet-Ed · ‎07-09-2005

No there isn't yet. Not for the iPhone. You would need to be running a VOIP app for that.

E the P · ‎10-26-2005

SLIKRICK wrote:
I thought I remembered somewhere here mentioned that there was upcoming functionality where voice can be transmitted over WiFi in the event of poor cellular connectivity. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks in advance.

If the other person has an iPhone you can use Facetime which does not require cellular connectivity.

SLIKRICK · ‎07-27-2008

You would think with all the complaining customers have and continue to voice, enabling wifi transmission would be made an option. Obviously that would mean less revenue from cellular though, so that'll likely never happen.

jane697 · ‎09-18-2012

E the P wrote:
SLIKRICK wrote:
I thought I remembered somewhere here mentioned that there was upcoming functionality where voice can be transmitted over WiFi in the event of poor cellular connectivity. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks in advance.
If the other person has an iPhone you can use Facetime which does not require cellular connectivity.

That would require that both parties are connecting while on Wifi; there's no way of knowing prior to calling via Facetime (short of texting the other user beforehand that you're gonna Facetime him) that the other party you're attempting to reach is actually connected to a Wifi network at that very moment. Yes I realize I'm speaking the obvious but it's so people don't just assume that if they attempt to Facetime someone that they'll be able to successfully connect every time.

BadBadLeroyBrown · ‎07-12-2011

There is always the MicroCell, which piggybacks off a high-speed Internet connection to improve reception. AT&T would be virtually unusable in my apartment without one.

SLIKRICK wrote:

I thought I remembered somewhere here mentioned that there was upcoming functionality where voice can be transmitted over WiFi in the event of poor cellular connectivity. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks in advance.

jane697 · ‎09-18-2012

BadBadLeroyBrown wrote:
There is always the MicroCell, which piggybacks off a high-speed Internet connection to improve reception. AT&T would be virtually unusable in my apartment without one.

SLIKRICK wrote:
I thought I remembered somewhere here mentioned that there was upcoming functionality where voice can be transmitted over WiFi in the event of poor cellular connectivity. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks in advance.

What? There are actually areas where AT&T (cellular service) is actually unusable? I never would have guessed it--not with all the AT&T ads proclaiming that AT&T has the most/best coverage, yadda yadda yadda...or the pro-AT&T folks here disparaging Verizon/Sprint/T-Mobile whenever someone complains about AT&T wireless service.

SLIKRICK · ‎07-27-2008

I don't think anyone has tried to disparage anyone about service. It's common sense that all wireless services have spots where coverage isn't as good as others. If you go on the message boards of all the carriers you mentioned you'll see them all complaining about 'crappy' coverage.

I do find it funny, though, that both AT&T and Verizon claim to have most coverage. I bet it's true in both cases too. Just a matter of how each quantifies coverage.

Ahh, marketing.

BadBadLeroyBrown · ‎07-12-2011

Actually, thanks to the location of my apartment and the construction of the building, all carriers are bad in my apartment. LTE coverage is slightly better, given that the 700MHz frequency of AT&T and Verizon's LTE networks are better at penetrating buildings. That doesn't help with my non-LTE iPhone 4S.

jane697 wrote:

BadBadLeroyBrown wrote:

There is always the MicroCell, which piggybacks off a high-speed Internet connection to improve reception. AT&T would be virtually unusable in my apartment without one.

SLIKRICK wrote:

I thought I remembered somewhere here mentioned that there was upcoming functionality where voice can be transmitted over WiFi in the event of poor cellular connectivity. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks in advance.

What? There are actually areas where AT&T (cellular service) is actually unusable? I never would have guessed it--not with all the AT&T ads proclaiming that AT&T has the most/best coverage, yadda yadda yadda...or the pro-AT&T folks here disparaging Verizon/Sprint/T-Mobile whenever someone complains about AT&T wireless service.

jane697 · ‎09-18-2012

BadBadLeroyBrown wrote:
Actually, thanks to the location of my apartment and the construction of the building, all carriers are bad in my apartment. LTE coverage is slightly better, given that the 700MHz frequency of AT&T and Verizon's LTE networks are better at penetrating buildings. That doesn't help with my non-LTE iPhone 4S.

jane697 wrote:
BadBadLeroyBrown wrote:
There is always the MicroCell, which piggybacks off a high-speed Internet connection to improve reception. AT&T would be virtually unusable in my apartment without one.

SLIKRICK wrote:
I thought I remembered somewhere here mentioned that there was upcoming functionality where voice can be transmitted over WiFi in the event of poor cellular connectivity. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks in advance.

What? There are actually areas where AT&T (cellular service) is actually unusable? I never would have guessed it--not with all the AT&T ads proclaiming that AT&T has the most/best coverage, yadda yadda yadda...or the pro-AT&T folks here disparaging Verizon/Sprint/T-Mobile whenever someone complains about AT&T wireless service.

LOL funny you mention that--in the immediate vicinity where I live, the 3G signal sucks (if you were to go strictly off the bar display)...yet the LTE signal (yes I know bars don't absolutely tell the whole story but still) is pretty strong...go figure.

SLIKRICK · ‎07-27-2008

But does voice run over LTE? I was under the impression it was only for data, no?

SLIKRICK · ‎07-27-2008

Interestingly, when I use the calling feature of the app, TextFree, my call quality is amazing; even in my house where cell service hadn't been that great recently.

I suspect the app uses the wifi signal when it's available, as opposed to cell signal. I do know regular (native) texting on the iPhone uses cell service, which, of course, suffers in low-signal situations. This works great!

It may be an alternative for folks who have indoor connectivity or signal strength issues.

sandblaster · ‎08-15-2006

SLIKRICK wrote:
But does voice run over LTE? I was under the impression it was only for data, no?

Current LTE network is data only but voice over LTE (VoLTE) is a future enhancement. I believe the planned rollout is next year.

I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s positions, strategies or opinions.

oz_1 · ‎10-25-2008

An update http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/08/atandt-changes-its-tune-offers-facetime-over-cellular-on-any-tier...

iFrosty · ‎07-20-2009

SLIKRICK wrote:
You would think with all the complaining customers have and continue to voice, enabling wifi transmission would be made an option. Obviously that would mean less revenue from cellular though, so that'll likely never happen.

I dont think carriers make as much money as they used to with voice plans. Its all about data now. Thats where the money is made. But i agree, you would think wifi calling (not like a VoIP ; well kinda?) would be there.

jane697 · ‎09-18-2012

iFrosty wrote:
SLIKRICK wrote:
You would think with all the complaining customers have and continue to voice, enabling wifi transmission would be made an option. Obviously that would mean less revenue from cellular though, so that'll likely never happen.
I dont think carriers make as much money as they used to with voice plans. Its all about data now. Thats where the money is made. But i agree, you would think wifi calling (not like a VoIP ; well kinda?) would be there.

Exactly, which is why the mobile carriers are now starting to offer combined voice/data/messaging plans where the voice and messaging are unlimited--think about it, half a dozen years ago unlimited voice (i.e., minutes) was unheard of...now they are offering unlimited voice as if it was a "throwaway" feature. Actually when you think about it, unlimited voice is essentially a "loss leader" feature in Mobile Share and similar combined plans, meant to get customers to switch from less-profitable individual voice and/or data plans to more-profitable Mobile Share plans.

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

AT&T came out with unlimited voice plans around 2000. There was the commercial with the basketball team at an airport to advertise it.

jane697 · ‎09-18-2012

21stNow wrote:
AT&T came out with unlimited voice plans around 2000. There was the commercial with the basketball team at an airport to advertise it.

I won't dispute your statement that unlimited voice plans were available as early as 2000 but quite frankly, how popular and/or widespread were those plans? I'm pretty sure it was nowhere near a big selling point back then like how it is now with the Mobile Share plans...plus I'm willing to bet that such an unlimited voice plan back then cost near $200...now you can get a Mobile Share plan that includes unlimited voice AND text for as little as $85 for one device...which brings me back to my main point--namely, how unlimited minutes have become like unlimited text--something that AT&T is now willing to include in their Mobile Share plans for practically peanuts, figuratively speaking.

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

jane697 wrote:

21stNow wrote:
AT&T came out with unlimited voice plans around 2000. There was the commercial with the basketball team at an airport to advertise it.

I won't dispute your statement that unlimited voice plans were available as early as 2000 but quite frankly, how popular and/or widespread were those plans? I'm pretty sure it was nowhere near a big selling point back then like how it is now with the Mobile Share plans...plus I'm willing to bet that such an unlimited voice plan back then cost near $200...now you can get a Mobile Share plan that includes unlimited voice AND text for as little as $85 for one device...which brings me back to my main point--namely, how unlimited minutes have become like unlimited text--something that AT&T is now willing to include in their Mobile Share plans for practically peanuts, figuratively speaking.

It seems like I was off by two years, as I find ads introducing this plan in 2002. It was $99.99/month and it seemed popular to me (I didn't have it as I didn't need it and wasn't on AT&T at the time). This was close to the time where people were running up $900+ phone bills from talking way more than their minute-allotment covered. It was a big deal on other internet forums when Cingular killed this plan around 2005-6. It was only supposed to last two years, but it seemed to last until after Cingular bought out AT&T Wireless.

A little nostalgia for us:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=20021010&id=57szAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rPIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4338,81...

Edited to add: Data has gone through cycles, too. When I first got the mModes data plan in 2004, data was $8 for 1MB. There were data plans with higher allotments that brought the per-MB charge down, but the data plans topped out at 8MB. There was no unlimited data plan. Later, a 2G unlimited data plan was introduced, then a 3G one. Now, we are back to tiered-data plans only.

Cellular companies change their pricing structures as customers' usage patterns change. As far as pricing, sometimes the customer benefits while other times, not so much.