AT&T WiFi Calling

I was a Verizon Wireless customer for over 15 years until 2007 when Apple released the first iPhone exclusively on AT&T’s network. In fact, when I originally signed up for cellular service in 1992, Verizon Wireless wasn’t even called Verizon Wireless. It was GTE Mobilnet and my first cell phone was the original Motorola Flip.

My home is built on a wooded, riverfront lot at the bottom of a small valley. It is on the fringe of AT&T service. There’s two or three bars of signal just a couple hundred yards up the hill, but the combination of trees and geography combine to reduce the signal in my home to almost nil. This illustrates what a complete Apple freak I am. I always had a good signal in my home when I was with Verizon, but I wanted an iPhone so badly I dopped Verizon like a hot potato after being a loyal customer for many years and never gave the act a second thought. Shame on Verizon for turning their collective noses up to the iPhone! It’s common knowledge Apple approached them first.

Early on, I had several “discussions” with AT&T representatives about the signal at my home. Their published map showed my house well within their 3G (there was no 4G back then) coverage area. As a result of my incessant “discussions”, AT&T provided me with a free micro cell device as soon as the service became available in 2008 and my family’s been relying on it in our house ever since. The AT&T-branded Cisco device connects to my home network and routs calls through my broadband internet connection. It provides 5-bar signal strength throughout our home but that means absolutely dick when it comes to call quality. Dropped and missed calls, failed connection attempts and poor audio quality are the norm when using the microcell. The device itself has been a reliability nightmare. Over the years I’ve had to replace it three or four times after it would just stop working altogether. That’s why I nearly jumped for joy when I heard news of AT&T’s new WiFi calling feature a couple of months ago.

Two days ago it finally happened. AT&T has been rolling out the service systematically for a few weeks now and day-before-yesterday I got it on my iPhone 6 Plus. Now, before you get all excited and throw your microcell out the window, let me explain the requirements: 1) Your iPhone must be running iOS 9 which is in public beta, 2) you need a solid broadband connection and 3) AT&T must have activated the WiFi calling service in your area.

To update your iPhone to iOS 9 you’ll need to sign up for Apple’s public beta program here. It’s really simple and since iOS 9’s beta has gone public, anyone can join. Were I a responsible blogger I would insert some boilerplate warning about using beta software at your own risk, but hey, you guys aren’t stupid and I refuse to insult your intelligence. Anyway, Apple’s web site will walk you through the whole update process. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to read disclaimers there. To make and receive calls, your broadband service needs to be solid. A good rule of thumb: If you can make FaceTime audio calls from your home WiFi, AT&T’s WiFi calling will work just fine. Sorry, satellite internet customers. Latency inherent in satellite systems (it’s that whole speed of light thing) prevents WiFi calling just like it clobbers Skype, FaceTime and others. The last requirement is a bit tricky. I’ve never found any published information from AT&T defining exact WiFi calling areas within their network. Once you update your iPhone to iOS 9 you’ll just have to try it ‘till it works. That’s as simple as going to the phone settings and turning the feature on. You’re asked to confirm your physical address for 911 emergencies and agree to AT&T’s terms of service, but that’s all there is to it. AT&T says this will eventually be a universal feature, but it sure ain’t there yet.

Our family has three AT&T iPhone users living at home and multiple friends and family members who visit regularly. AT&T microcells require you to add users’ phone numbers to the device’s configuration and all users must be AT&T customers. The device also has a built-in GPS to tell AT&T where the microcell is physically located. At startup, the microcell “phones home” to AT&T to confirm all this information, make sure the microcell isn’t somewhere it shouldn’t be and that all the users are registered AT&T customers. A microcell is just what its name implies, a miniature version of a cell tower. It transmits and receives handset signals on the same 3G radio frequencies as a cell tower then connects to AT&T’s network via your home broadband connection. When it works, it works fine, but as I’ve described, the system incorporates multiple points of failure. I’ve experienced them all at one time or another. WiFi calling simply skips the whole 3G step and connects your iPhone directly to AT&T’s network via your existing home WiFi. Simpler. Better.

As I said, I’ve only been using this new feature for a couple of days, but so far it has worked perfectly on all three of our iPhones. In fact, we noticed a huge improvement in connection speed. That is to say, there is virtually no lag time when making or receiving calls. It wasn’t unusual to experience a five or six (or ten) second delay from the time I pressed the green “connect” button on my iPhone until I would hear the phone ring on the other end. Now, with WiFi calling that delay is non-existent. I’ve tested this multiple times by making calls to my home land line phone and vice-versa. In every case the call goes through instantaneously. Audio quality is as good as can be produced over a phone network with no noticeable delay or echo.

WiFi calling works so well it makes me wonder why it has taken cell carriers so long to adopt it. When you think about it, the whole microcell concept is kind of stupid in today’s world of smartphones. In fact, the only way to make sense of it is to imagine cell phones with no WiFi. I suppose there are still quite a few of those, but one would think they are a minute percentage. AT&T doesn’t even offer one anymore.

Well, as far as the microcell goes; I say goodbye and good riddance. It’s an idea whose time has passed, thankfully. I’ve only been testing our phones for a couple of days so there may well be some problems with WiFi calling, but I haven’t discovered any yet.

Update: I have discovered a MAJOR problem with this new feature. If you are somewhere with absolutely no cellular signal, WiFi calling works beautifully. If, however, you're in a "fringe" area, not so much. If your iPhone detects a single bar of cellular signal strength it defaults to that crappy signal no matter how strong a WiFi signal you have. There is one area in my home where I get one bar from AT&T and the damned phone uses it instead of my perfect WiFi. Hopefully this will get changed in a software update soon.