topic Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2 in Off-Topic

VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

Anonymous — Mon, 16 May 2016 18:45:58 GMT

Hi,

I'm new to these Forums (this is my first post) so apologies if this has already been asked, I have tried to look but couldnt find what I was looking for.

I live in a rural area and although this is not unique to O2 my signal is very broken and unreliable. A couple of years ago i defected from EE to O2 as O2 do have a better signal for me at work.

Recently I've read that EE and Vodafone have both gone live on VoWifi, something that would make all my rural problems at home disappear, and although I dont want to leave O2, its something I wont have much choice over unless O2 have plans to bring us VoWifi (and VoLTE).

I am willing to be patient as long as i know it is likely to roll out by the end of the year. Please, can anyone confirm if this is being planned to roll out imminently.

I appreciate we have TuGo, and this has proved priceless when travelling abroad, but it does fall short when compared to Vodafone and EE's VoWifi and is not enough on its own to keep me on O2.

I have found something on the internet that says its coming, but would like more concrete confirmation about it. A link to what I found is below:

http://news.o2.co.uk/2015/12/10/year-life-o2-network/

Please, can anyone confirm VoWifi will be on the O2 network anytime soon.

Many thanks

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

Cleoriff — Mon, 16 May 2016 18:49:44 GMT

Hi @Anonymous Welcome to the forum...I haven't heard anything about this but will mention @Toby the Head of Community. He may be able to answer tomorrow ..

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

jonsie — Mon, 16 May 2016 18:54:25 GMT

As far as we know there are no immediate plans although wifi calling on iphones was talked about a good while ago. Nothing came of that either so if it's important to you, I would be looking at general coverage of the the other networks.

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

MI5 — Mon, 16 May 2016 18:57:35 GMT

VoLTE will most definitely be coming but VoWiFi is restricted to Tugo only on O2, at least that's what we have always been told by O2.
Remember also that O2 has an obligation to Ofcom to provide 98% coverage by the end of 2017 so there are still some big network improvements to come in the next 18 months.

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

Anonymous — Tue, 17 May 2016 12:01:51 GMT

Not to be dense, but what is the difference between VoWiFiVoLTE and TuGo. To be fair, I have only used TuGo, the other two I looked at on their websites but by the description they seems to do the same?

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

gmarkj — Tue, 17 May 2016 12:35:48 GMT

VoWiFi - voice over WiFi (uses WiFi to send/receive voice call)
VoLTE - voice over LTE [4G data connection] (uses mobile data to send/receive voice call).
The main difference is the implementation. VoWiFi and VoLTE are meant to be built in functions of the phone, while Tu is a 3rd party app.
For instance, iPhones have the ability to make VoLTE calls without an additional app.

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

Anonymous — Tue, 17 May 2016 12:52:51 GMT

Ah there we go, so it jus thte intergration into the handset. There was was a big thing on the EE community boards about the firmaware your phone comes with, i'm guessing you need a certain version or above for it to work.

cheers

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

gmarkj — Tue, 17 May 2016 12:57:46 GMT

Don't take that as gospel, that's just what I have read/remembered...
It has also been said that making called using VoLTE provides a more detailed sound, much like the difference between stereo and surround when watching TV/film

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

Anonymous — Tue, 17 May 2016 13:01:47 GMT

Its still more help than the marketing blurb, as it all looked the same to me.

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

MI5 — Tue, 17 May 2016 13:21:19 GMT

@gmarkj wrote:
For instance, iPhones have the ability to make VoLTE calls without an additional app.

That would need to say VoWiFi to be correct.

VoLTE will be native to all phones, VoWiFi is native to iPhones on EE and Voda whilst O2 uses Tu (app) to achieve a similar function ("similar" chosen deliberately as it isn't the same thing at all really).

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

gmarkj — Tue, 17 May 2016 13:25:26 GMT

I thought iPhones were VoLTE enabled (maybe just in the US, but possibly here as well)?

About the similar thing, I would agree seeing as how (in most cases) the VoWiFi works whereas Tu is a bit hit and miss - as you might expect with a 3rd party app rather than natively built in...

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

MI5 — Tue, 17 May 2016 13:30:57 GMT

The vast majority of phones produced in the last 2 years are capable of VoLTE but it's the networks that don't have the capability in the UK yet.

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

MI5 — Tue, 17 May 2016 13:40:43 GMT

This is the phone indication when using VoLTE (Note 4)

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

gmarkj — Tue, 17 May 2016 13:59:26 GMT

it's a shame there isn't a kudos button in here as you'd have got a couple more...

thanks for clarifying on the (misty) points I made earlier!!

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

Anonymous — Tue, 17 May 2016 17:49:22 GMT

Thankyou to everyone for replying.

I guess we still dont really know what O2's plans are regarding VoWifi, although I find it strange if O2 arent trying to roll this out as it eliminates all the poor signal issues in peoples home (I cant imagine many with mobile phones that dont have Wifi at home), and O2's main competitors have VoWifi and failing to launch it will surely lose customers to EE and Vodafone.

I read from one of the posts that @Toby may have some info, if you have and you read this please could you respond, thankyou.

I dont want to leave O2 so have some patience left but will have no choice other than to defect back to EE if it turns out our only Wifi calling will remain with TuGo.

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

MI5 — Tue, 17 May 2016 17:50:31 GMT

I'm sure Toby will say no plans for VoWiFi on O2 but we'll wait and see.

Re: VoWifi and VoLTE on O2

Cleoriff — Tue, 17 May 2016 18:40:36 GMT

Thanks for starting the thread @Anonymous I have learnt a heck of a lot from it...:smileywink: