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Question: Can the iPhone call over Wi-Fi?

post #1 of 3
9/13/12 at 2:19pm
Thread Starter 

I live in a pretty dead signal zone for all carriers and use an AT&T provided femtocell plugged into my network to boost call clarity at home.  Talking with a friend who has a Galaxy S III who has the same problem, I find out his phone has a feature which uses his home WiFi to do pretty much the same thing without a separate femtocell device.  I know I can use an app like Skype to make VoIP calls on my home WiFi, but that’s a different animal.  Does the iPhone 4S or 5 (I have a 4) have a comparable feature or is it an upcoming feature of iOS 6?


Edited by corpunk - 9/13/12 at 2:27pm
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post #2 of 3
9/14/12 at 6:44am

Your friends Galaxy is making VOIP calls in that situation ... it may not be "Skype", but it's an app that allows the phone's number to default to VOIP when there's WiFi but no cellular.

 

My guess is, if there were such an App for iOS (there may be), ATT would find a way to block it. (like with tethering and bandwidth throttling and such.)

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From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, "Look at that!" -...
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post #3 of 3
9/14/12 at 9:25am
Thread Starter 

Thanks for the reply, you are correct.  I did some more research and found that this is a feature of T-Mobile's "WiFi Calling" which is basically a neat way to make VOIP calls using your cell number on a trusted network which does not count against your minutes plan.  It's not perfect if I believe the complaints on the T-Mobile user forums, but an interesting concept (remember when there were predictions that land-based voice calling would be essentially free with a broadband connection?). 

 

Not sure if Verizon or Sprint offer the same service, but I'm pretty sure AT&T does not.  Oh well, I guess I'll have to stick with the femtocell for cell calls and Skype for VOIP.  I'll be curious to see if the femtocell will work with the iPhone 5.  We'll see!
 

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