AT&T to support Wi-Fi calling for Apple's iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus in 2015
While T-Mobile will be the only U.S. carrier to support Wi-Fi calling on Apple's new iPhone 6 series handsets at launch, it will not remain alone for long as market leader AT&T announced that it will roll out the technology on its own network next year.
"We don't have a burning desire or need for coverage," AT&T wireless chief Ralph de la Vega said Friday when asked why the carrier was lagging behind competitors, according to CNET. "Other operators with less coverage may pursue it more aggressively."
De la Vega cited concerns about the reliability of call handoff between Wi-Fi and GSM networks. It is more seamless when handing off to LTE, but AT&T's Voice over LTE rollout has not yet been completed.
At a Wednesday press conference, T-Mobile CEO John Legere -- in his now-trademark style -- offered only a single reason for his company's support. "Why not do it?" he said.
Apple added support for Wi-Fi calling, which reroutes voice calls over Wi-Fi data networks, in iOS 8. T-Mobile announced support for the feature in June of this year.
"We don't have a burning desire or need for coverage," AT&T wireless chief Ralph de la Vega said Friday when asked why the carrier was lagging behind competitors, according to CNET. "Other operators with less coverage may pursue it more aggressively."
De la Vega cited concerns about the reliability of call handoff between Wi-Fi and GSM networks. It is more seamless when handing off to LTE, but AT&T's Voice over LTE rollout has not yet been completed.
At a Wednesday press conference, T-Mobile CEO John Legere -- in his now-trademark style -- offered only a single reason for his company's support. "Why not do it?" he said.
Apple added support for Wi-Fi calling, which reroutes voice calls over Wi-Fi data networks, in iOS 8. T-Mobile announced support for the feature in June of this year.
Comments
“Next year”, meaning December 31, 2015.
Then take into the equation that AT&T's wifi typically only has 500K upload max, and less than 1mb downlink, and high latency for carrier provided hotspots, mostly at McDonalds.
WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING?
What a cocky arrogant prick. I have ZERO reception not only in my office but within at least a dozen yards outside of my office, but we do have a strong Wifi network.
Att is just light years behind delivering internet service, so you would have to expect they could not handle cell to wifi handoff.
You're welcome to come spend a week at my house and try to use your phone for business calls without using my microcell.
Good but not deal breaker as it helps AT&T to off-load some of voice calls load to public network that is funded by public. It is just a bullet bashing against other carriers that says "Me too". I like to see VoLTE support that gives better call/audio quality like HD VOICE offered on T-Mobile and others. I also would appreciate AT&T get rid off data overage charge and allow customer with reduce speed like T-Mobile when your allotment is used up.
So sad. Been calling with Skype, and other wifi/VoIP apps for years. The US finally comes into the 21st century.
How is AT&T still in business?
another concern would be: are carriers going to be creating a "carrier access billing" style system to pay back the amount of calls that are made from the WiFi carrier's network, as compensation to the business, OR a data usage waiver for the amount a carrier uses for voice calls on the business' network. The business should either get compensation or not penalized for traffic data for tier 1 phone company carriers.
This is now being done with VoIP utilization fees, billed in between carriers as a PVU percentage fee every month. Will that money be seen by the businesses that are hosting free calls for phone carriers? Doubtful.
As long as AT&T gets this feature ASAP. They should've done it by now to alleviate their network issues.
Cool. Can't wait to get rid of the crappy M-Cell box AT&T made me buy that never worked.
I had crappy cell coverage at my house and AT&T gave me a Microcell at no charge. It works great. I now have flawless cell coverage at home.
The need wifi calling, at least over your OWN wifi secure router.
Consistent with past behavior, wanna bet that they are one of the LAST carriers to actually support this iPhone technology?
Really? Well, I ordered a Verizon iPhone 6 today because my AT&T service is so pathetic. AT&T's coverage map swears I should be getting excellent signal strength, but neither I nor others with AT&T get usable signal strength.
Now here's hoping Verizon comes around and supports wi-fi calling soon.
So sad. Been calling with Skype, and other wifi/VoIP apps for years. The US finally comes into the 21st century.
What an ignorant remark. We've been using Skype and other VoIP apps for years in the US as well. That is not what this is about.
Interesting that only ONE other network supports this out of the box now, which is EE in the UK.
You’re welcome for inventing the system by which you can whine about how bad we are, by the way.
AT&T will S-L-O-W-L-Y implement WiFi calling because once it becomes common place theres no need to buy unlimited text and talk plans. Causing loss of revenue and all the lies they tell you to get people to buy the crap. 30.00 for data and 70.00 for text and talk? LMAO
I get 400 minutes, text and data and my roll over minutes are at around 4000. I don't think I'll run out of talk time. LOL
When they start using Wifi calling I will drop my plan even lower.