As Apple’s SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller introduced WiFi Calling support coming with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and other iPhones with iOS 8 on supported networks earlier this week, it was noted that only T-Mobile and EE will provide support for the new feature at launch. WiFi Calling will allow users to take advantage of home or office WiFi connections, for instance, to improve call quality in otherwise potentially low network zones. Telecommunications site LightReading reports, however, that AT&T plans to add WiFi Calling support for its subscribers beginning next year.
Speaking Friday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, he said the carrier would use WiFi calling in 2015, but only as a complement to voice-over-LTE and 3G voice. […]
“We’re very focused on making sure it’s a great experience for customers, but we see it as a complement, not a replacement,” he said. “We feel good about a great nationwide network with unlimited talk and text.”
An AT&T spokesperson shared today, though, that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus demand has exceeded that of the demand from either the iPhone 5 or iPhone 5s launches from previous year as pre-orders kicked off today.
This gives the carrier yet another reason to implement support for a feature announced alongside the new iPhone 6 models and the roll out of iOS 8 next week.
The report and statement notes that the ability to move from WiFi to cellular during a call without interruptions seems to be the reason for AT&T’s slower rollout compared to its competitor T-Mobile.
T-Mobile, earlier this week at its Uncarrier 7.0 event, detailed how WiFi Calling will function on its network.
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Way to deliver AT&T. Better late than never? Right?
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meaning they will only let you wifi call if you have unlimited talk? no thanks ill jailbreak or just continue to use google voice ;-)
So they’re going to force onto WiFi so they no longer have to bother expanding coverage and upgrading cellular technology? If we use WiFi for our calls they still deduct if we had limited minutes, or will they give us a discount on our plans for using our own broadband? Not fair, AT&T, that you aren’t going to give us a discount somehow if we have to use our own bandwidth to pick up your slack.
Do minutes over a wifi routed call go against the minutes in your plan? Has any carrier said yet?
Yes. Yes.
Yes they count, I have this feature with Movistar AR and is called “TuGo”, you can find the app in the Apple store and can be use with the telephone, computer or tablet and is nothing real very new, it runs perfect in IOS7.1.2 but still is a beta and I believe is also available in the UK
Don’t listen to people who don’t know what they are talking about. Sprint has limited wifi calling support on some phones but I don’t know about theirpolicy. ATT and Verizon don’t have WIFI calling.
T-mobile is the one with the wide adoption of the feature and on T-mobile it does NOT count towarss your minute and doesn’t cost anything extra.
Good news! I see this as win/win, for those of us who have had to rely on 3G MicroCell to overcome network limitations, this will presumably be a far superior experience. And for ATT, this will offload a lot of network load given ubiquity of WiFi, meaning when you do need LTE or 4G, more availability.
I don’t see the comments implying intent to limit this to Unlimited talk users. I think his comment is addressing the improvements in their current network and that they feel good about offering unlimited talk/text which makes the priority for WiFi less critical. I see the only critical part being support for use in areas with less coverage which is less of an issue given recent improvements…but still a big issue for many of us.
I love it how this just comes off as yet another giant FU from AT&T. *sigh*
because their network sucks so hard here, I’m damn near downtown and get crappy coverage
So I can’t leave my house and not have iTunes radio screw up when it goes from Wifi to cellular. I really don’t see this ever working either.
“We’re very focused on making sure it’s a great experience for customers, but we see it as a complement, not a replacement,” he said. “We feel good about a great nationwide network with unlimited talk and text.”
That’s a dig on T-Mobile if anyone managed to catch that. They know that T-Mobile’s coverage is not as good as theirs and they see it as cop-out.
A little late, isn’t it? T-Mobile USA had some form of Wi-Fi calling from compatible cellphones like way back in 2012!
Not same thing.
What is “not the same thing”? Yes T-mobile had wifi calling for a while and it is pretty much the same thing as ATT and Verizon are promising to do…very much the same thing. Don’t know if the back end tech implementation is different or not but from a user and feature standpoint – the same thing.
I’m not sure about other markets, but Canada was trending 2 years ago to 250ish mins and 4-6 gig data. Now for the same price we are unlimited minutes and 2-3 gig. Totally getting screwed…