WiFi 4G calling Instructions please.

[cglover2]

I have a usage question.  I have looked at the O2 website on WiFi and 4G calling but have questionsthat are not answered.  They are as follows:

1) How is it initiated? The website says 'when the signal is poor' so do I use my phone allowance as normal but if the signal is poor does the 'phone use wifi or 4G automatically or do I have to initiate?

2) If I am abroad and have wifi can I use wifi calling to call home without incurring roaming charges?

3) Do I leave wifi calling 'off' on my 'phone (iPhone 7) until/unless I wish to use it or do I leave it on?

Hopefully someone from the community can help with these questions.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

1 - You choose wifi preferred or mobile preferred in settings. I you have wifi preferred and you are connected to wifi, it will use wifi for the call.
If Mobile preferred it will only connect to wifi with no signal.
2 - Wifi calling doesn't work abroad.
3 - Just leave it on and it will decide on the best signal to use.

[Marjo]

Hey @cglover2, how are you doing with this, did you have any further questions or are you all good?

[cglover2]

Where in settings do I find the preferences of WiFi/mobile? I have an iPhone 7 and can’t find it in mobile data or phone, also you make no reference to when 4G is used bearing in mind each would use different parts of my allowance. Shame it doesn’t work abroad, it would be nice to be able to call home using WiFi!

[MI5]

4g calling doesn't use 4g data allowance.
All calls come out of call allowances only.
Unfortunately you can't set a preference on an iPhone, that's only on Android, sorry.
The iPhone will always use wi-fi if in range of a known WiFi network and 4g calls will be by default if connected to 4g at the time.

[cglover2]

Thanks MI5 for clarifying, how do you get your knowledge?

Further to the comment I made about calling home from abroad, do you know of an app that I could use to call back to the UK using wifi? I am going to Egypt in October and will be taking a 'MiFi' device with me and will use a local sim to provide a data connection, just wondered if I could use this to call home via wifi!?

[MI5]

If you are calling other iPhones you can use facetime to call home free over your WiFi connection, to call other smartphones you can use WhatsApp as long as the other party has the same app and for calling any others you can use Skype, but you'll need to buy some Skype credit.