Doubt it. Seems it needs to be enabled on the network (sim) but also on the phone software (at Cell C's discretion)
yes that's exactly my point....
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Wi-Fi calling from Cell C tested
- Thread starter Kevin Lancaster
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yes that's exactly my point....
This sounds great for someone like me who gets poor cellular signal at home on all networks but I have a ADSL account and wifi. I assume that the roll-out will be to major handsets in due course? Having a Samsung galaxy phone I hope it is supported and not just a select few.
One point of concern why would you use a telkom LTE service to test a cell c new addition ( with all the speculation of the buy-out ) should you not opt for a vanilla ADSL or fibre account?
One point of concern why would you use a telkom LTE service to test a cell c new addition ( with all the speculation of the buy-out ) should you not opt for a vanilla ADSL or fibre account?
WIFI is WIFI so the answer is yes (unless the operator restricts IP ranges)
Which leads me on to why MTN and VODACOM have not pushed this - will cannibalise roaming revenue
Ockie
Resident Lead Bender
But you will be billed as per your plan I would assume. This will be carrier dependent I believe.
Exactly why I am wondering, because I have a sneaky suspicion that they would somehow try and restrict it.
Yes you will, but you will be billed for a local SA call while sitting in, say, Europe on WIFI - free minutes to also apply. The old profitable way was to bill the client for an international roaming call from Europe back into SA.
Ockie
Resident Lead Bender
Sir! Yes, sir!
(According to Cell C it works the way you describe. Basically calls are billed as if you're calling from SA, so you can pay R0.66/min for calls to SA, but calls to numbers in the country you're visiting will be billed as international calls.
That said, it will be interesting to test what the call quality is like on a variety of overseas free Wi-Fi networks.)
If I remember correctly, on Cell C some of the international call rates (depending on country) are pretty low already, lower than making a local call in some instances. And I have a feeling that in some cases the Cell C international rate will be lower than the local rate in the other country.
Depends. Cell C is charging you R199 a month for this bundle (http://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/139752-cell-c-wi-fi-calling-deals.html) which gives you 500 minutes. No article says whether Wifi calling will work without this bundle?
Seems like Cell C is using the industry standard, so it should be available on other phones in the future. iPhone will need a carrier update, or you can just update it yourself if you know how.
Firstly I think people shouldn't get confused, WiFi Calling is not a form of SIP. In fact its a referred to as UMA or GAN. It effectively allows your device to behave similar to a Femtocell which connects to your carrier's core network via a gateway - I won't go into the specifics here.
In terms of access to your home network while roaming there are normally two approaches to that. The first protection can be implemented in DNS using either IP block query restrictions or using anycast. Next the actual carrier gateway will most likely filter to only permit country-specific IP blocks.
What is great about WiFi Calling is that it is generally made available in the OS (Android, iOS 8+, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, et al already support it) and the carrier simply needs to provide a UMA/GAN compatible gateway infrastructure and provision the service on the handsets.
In terms of access to your home network while roaming there are normally two approaches to that. The first protection can be implemented in DNS using either IP block query restrictions or using anycast. Next the actual carrier gateway will most likely filter to only permit country-specific IP blocks.
What is great about WiFi Calling is that it is generally made available in the OS (Android, iOS 8+, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, et al already support it) and the carrier simply needs to provide a UMA/GAN compatible gateway infrastructure and provision the service on the handsets.
Dave
Honorary Master
I've been using WifiCalling on a UK network of a while and if CellC follow the same principles it will be available only on certain handsets, when it launched here it was only on Galaxy S5 and S6 and iPhone, they have added a few more handsets but for Android the phone has to have specific network firmware to work, any iPhone will work though.
Officially it is only for national use and not roaming, but people have got it working while roaming by using a vpn.
It works extremely well, it's completely integrated and seamless in use, calls are billed exactly as normal because it's only the first step of the call on wifi, it is still carried like a cellular call for the rest of the routing so the network infrastructure is still used, it isn't a simple voip call like some think.
Officially it is only for national use and not roaming, but people have got it working while roaming by using a vpn.
It works extremely well, it's completely integrated and seamless in use, calls are billed exactly as normal because it's only the first step of the call on wifi, it is still carried like a cellular call for the rest of the routing so the network infrastructure is still used, it isn't a simple voip call like some think.
That's what I thought. Hence it should work on any phone with a recent OS - why is it hardware specific? Are there generic settings / apps we can use to connect to the carrier's gateway? (Assuming your SIM is enabled etc, of course)
Like I said before it depends on how it was done. In the past it needed a carrier specific ROM due to the hooks they put in the OS to handle it, but if they are using the wifi calling standard that is available in most recent phones then it would work for more devices.
That makes sense. From the article it sounds like they may be using a custom ROM with their own software built-in, but surely you could just replicate the settings if they're sticking to standards, right? In terms of the way standard wifi calling functionality is built into the phone OS I mean. ie. It should be technically possible?
Well it depends on how Cell C implement it. They could offer you a better call rate or setup their own WiFi access points and absorb the back-haul costs. What it does enable is seamless usage of unlicensed spectrum for the carrier and better possibly less congested coverage for the consumer.
You could, but then you need to make your own ROM. That also limits you to Android devices only as you won't be able to roll your own IOS ROM. With a jailbreak you can but it's just way too much effort for what it's worth.
Since Cell C said that they are going to support other handsets, it makes me believe that they are using the Wifi calling standard in the OS. If anyone has an iPhone 5 (or higher) with IOS 8 (or higher) they can create their own carrier file (IPCC) that turns on wifi calling for the Cell C network and see if it works.
Quite interesting and a lot of my questions have been answered. Now to see why there are problems with adsl accounts, possibly because those IP ranges just haven't been whitelisted as local IPs to allow them to connect?