WiFi calling

Nickolp1974

Nickolp1974

Nickolp1974

Soldato
Joined
15 May 2012
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Louth, lincs
About to move into new house and will have 900mb fibre, most likely with BT, i was going to get a landline but adds around £20 p/m, with having a good service how does wifi calling work? does it have a number?? to dial from a landline, can you ring mobiles?? not sure on all this regarding phones so any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
Do you need one (a "landline") at all? Why not just use a mobile?
 
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throwaway4372 said:
WiFi calling is a feature of mobiles which allows the mobile to make and receive calls via its WiFi connection, which is good if you have no mobile signal at home. That's nothing to do with paying for a landline tho.

Landlines are obsolete if you have a mobile, which everyone does now. So there's no point paying for it.
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Agree mostly. If you have a mobile with a functional signal almost all the time, you can largely stick with that and work any workarounds needed around the mobile.

However, if planning for an emergency or in need of a connection in more urgent times, then having the ability to call via Landline (VOIP) would be good also. In my case for example, as I will need an emergency line to call for medical emergencies or be called (because we locally have a mobile not spot so the last thing you want is a bad connection during an emergency), we went with a Landline (VOIP) with our ISP (Community Fibre, £10 extra a month) and mobiles are our "in case the Landline is totally out" backup.
 
Meddling-Monk said:
Agree mostly. If you have a mobile with a functional signal almost all the time, you can largely stick with that and work any workarounds needed around the mobile.

However, if planning for an emergency or in need of a connection in more urgent times, then having the ability to call via Landline (VOIP) would be good also. In my case for example, as I will need an emergency line to call for medical emergencies or be called (because we locally have a mobile not spot so the last thing you want is a bad connection during an emergency), we went with a Landline (VOIP) with our ISP (Community Fibre, £10 extra a month) and mobiles are our "in case the Landline is totally out" backup.
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This is precisely what Wi-Fi calling solves, your mobile phone will use your internet to make a call rather than having to rely on the mobile network.
 
throwaway4372 said:
WiFi calling is a feature of mobiles which allows the mobile to make and receive calls via its WiFi connection, which is good if you have no mobile signal at home. That's nothing to do with paying for a landline tho.

Landlines are obsolete if you have a mobile, which everyone does now. So there's no point paying for it.
Click to expand...
yeah weve not had landline for 4 years but again, the parents! they have old mobiles, need to check what they have
 
We use wifi calling, because without we just can't place a reliable phone call.

However, I haven't found it to be bulletproof by any stretch.

Some of the cheaper networks straight up don't support it.

With my old Samsung mobile, it would randomly and silently drop wifi calling capability - causing me to miss critical calls. I ended up switching to a Pixel as a result, and that has been more stable.

My work iPhone is very touch and go. I actually run it aeroplane mode at home because otherwise it would often try to use the rubbish mobile signal in preference to Wifi and then no-one could hear me properly.
 
Jim99 said:
We use wifi calling, because without we just can't place a reliable phone call.

However, I haven't found it to be bulletproof by any stretch.

Some of the cheaper networks straight up don't support it.

With my old Samsung mobile, it would randomly and silently drop wifi calling capability - causing me to miss critical calls. I ended up switching to a Pixel as a result, and that has been more stable.

My work iPhone is very touch and go. I actually run it aeroplane mode at home because otherwise it would often try to use the rubbish mobile signal in preference to Wifi and then no-one could hear me properly.
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Yeah same. I ditched my Samsung mobile as WiFi calling wasn't always on. The phone would switch to what it thought it should use if the phone signal was ok; exactly like you described with your work iPhone. Pixel for example keeps it on always. Same as other phones I've had, like currently my Motorola. :)
 
ChrisD. said:
This is precisely what Wi-Fi calling solves, your mobile phone will use your internet to make a call rather than having to rely on the mobile network.
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Yep. But not when the other user (parent) only knows how to operate the the landline properly as the mobile (that can call via WiFi) is too complex for them to operate. Handling and complexity reasons here in my case (Although I forgot to write this piece of info down from last time).
 
Meddling-Monk said:
Yep. But not when the other user (parent) only knows how to operate the the landline properly as the mobile (that can call via WiFi) is too complex for them to operate. Handling and complexity reasons here in my case (Although I forgot to write this piece of info down from last time).
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exactly that, should have said there in there 80's! I could teach them how to call someone using whatsapp, skype etc etc but there friends need to know not only how to use but have the capability to do so. Think im just going to have to get a landline for them.
 
ChrisD. said:
This is precisely what Wi-Fi calling solves, your mobile phone will use your internet to make a call rather than having to rely on the mobile network.
Click to expand...
Looking on the bad side though what happens if the Internet/wifi goes down in a emergency. I have BT digital voice and I have no need for it now as I have a better mobile phone. Unfortunately I'm stuck with it until next June.
 
Meddling-Monk said:
Agree mostly. If you have a mobile with a functional signal almost all the time, you can largely stick with that and work any workarounds needed around the mobile.

However, if planning for an emergency or in need of a connection in more urgent times, then having the ability to call via Landline (VOIP) would be good also. In my case for example, as I will need an emergency line to call for medical emergencies or be called (because we locally have a mobile not spot so the last thing you want is a bad connection during an emergency), we went with a Landline (VOIP) with our ISP (Community Fibre, £10 extra a month) and mobiles are our "in case the Landline is totally out" backup.
Click to expand...
If you have VOIP it's no different than WiFi calling on your mobile though, both rely on your internet working. So why post extra for VoIP.
 
Firegod said:
Yeah same. I ditched my Samsung mobile as WiFi calling wasn't always on. The phone would switch to what it thought it should use if the phone signal was ok; exactly like you described with your work iPhone. Pixel for example keeps it on always. Same as other phones I've had, like currently my Motorola. :)
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Good to know I wasn't going crazy at least!
 
robj20 said:
If you have VOIP it's no different than WiFi calling on your mobile though, both rely on your internet working. So why post extra for VoIP.
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Ah, right. The reason (for me here) was missed out in that first reply I made; it's because of the other user (my parent) is unable to consistently utilise a mobile easily due to complexity and handling (old age and chronic issues after having a grand mal seizure a few years back so their memory is also not exactly what is used to be). But they are still able to just about manage a landline device connected via VOIP. So in short, it's there for their convenience rather than mine and in an emergency (if something happened to me at home for example) they will be able to call out in an emergency via the Landline unlike on the mobile.

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Also, I have UPS acting as backup for the Internet and Landline, meaning if there's a local outage of power, the mobiles in our notspot area will become even more difficult to utilise, but the Landline likely will still work for a bit in that situation, and this will give a life line for my parent in case I'm not there and I need to be reached, or again if something happened to me.
 
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I've never found WiFi calling to be 100% reliable as you're reliant on your mobile network and phone support and the latter can change from manufacturer to manufacturer and even model to model - i've had Motorola's where an old model supported it fine, newer one supposedly supported it but it was damn right iffy and mostly wouldn't work; some of my Samsung's will happily drop the call on a whim even though the internet connection/WiFi is perfectly solid.

If calls aren't vital and you aren't in a complete black spot for mobile coverage then you'll probably get by fine especially if you have WhatsApp/Facetime (for friends/family etc).
Otherwise i would opt for a battery backup VOIP solution.
 
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