A quick update for those trying to figure out which carriers will/won’t support the iPhone 6’s WiFi calling feature any time soon: T-Mobile is a go. AT&T will get it in 2015. Now Verizon is pledging to support it next year, too.
Word of the new feature comes from Verizon CFO Fran Shammo, who mentioned it at a conference this morning — but not before taking the opportunity to take a not-so-subtle jab at T-Mobile for rushing to play up their support for it.
FierceWireless quotes him here:
“We built our voice platform so extensively [that] there was never a need for us to tell our customers, ‘Oh, our network is not good enough so you need to go on Wi-Fi to complete your call.'”
So WTF is WiFi Calling, and why should you care?
In short: WiFi calling lets you place calls/send texts as you normally would, except it all runs over any WiFi network you’ve got access to rather than your cell carrier’s towers. Even if you leave WiFi-range mid-call, the call will just transition right over to the cell network (implementing that bit, as it happens, is a good chunk of why most carriers can’t flip the switches and claim iOS WiFi calling support right this second.)
And as an added bonus: depending on your carrier’s policies, WiFi calls often don’t count against your monthly minutes.
If your coverage is consistently solid, it might not be a huge thing for you. If you consistently find yourself dropping calls at your home, or work, or any other place you’ve got WiFi, though, it’s a damned killer feature — though not one that is at all exclusive to iPhone. With all of the carriers now moving to support it following the iPhone 6 launch (and T-Mobile requiring it in all new phones they sell), I’d expect it to be a standard feature within 2 years.
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