Spark Wifi Calling imminent?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark Wifi Calling imminent?

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Ultimate Geek
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#2961478 31-Aug-2022 10:58

Phones from other carriers that already support WiFi Calling from the carrier's-approved firmware update, will these still have to wait for Spark to enable them?

I have an Galaxy A50 which is from VNZ and WiFi Calling on the A50 is supported by VNZ - so will I have to wait until Spark enables the A50 even if my phone's firmware already is ready to go?

tanivula

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#2961529 31-Aug-2022 13:09

grolschie:

Phones from other carriers that already support WiFi Calling from the carrier's-approved firmware update, will these still have to wait for Spark to enable them?

I have an Galaxy A50 which is from VNZ and WiFi Calling on the A50 is supported by VNZ - so will I have to wait until Spark enables the A50 even if my phone's firmware already is ready to go?

Yes, from the messages on this thread, Spark are planning on gradually enabling VoWiFi device by device.

grolschie

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#2961541 31-Aug-2022 13:49

Thanks.

wratterus

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#2964194 7-Sep-2022 13:24

Got a large-ish update this morning on my A52s 5G and thought the option to enable WiFi Calling might be available, not yet though.

old3eyes

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#2964245 7-Sep-2022 15:04

wratterus:

Got a large-ish update this morning on my A52s 5G and thought the option to enable WiFi Calling might be available, not yet though.

Same here. Still waiting.

Regards,

Old3eyes

skyplonk

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#2964251 7-Sep-2022 15:18

old3eyes:
wratterus:

Got a large-ish update this morning on my A52s 5G and thought the option to enable WiFi Calling might be available, not yet though.

Same here. Still waiting.

I am amazed how poor this rollout has been. It's been years in the making and they launch with one obscure Samsung device, without even a device compatibility road map (apart from iOS for some reasons).

Wonder if anyone in the wild has actually made a commercial VoWIFI call?!

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lxsw20

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#2964274 7-Sep-2022 15:48

Obscure in consumer land maybe but I know quite a few corporates that offer the A series of Samsung phones.

skyplonk

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#2964288 7-Sep-2022 16:04

lxsw20: Obscure in consumer land maybe but I know quite a few corporates that offer the A series of Samsung phones.

Not disputing that the A series is popular - but one model from the entire A series (with no idea of more) - that's pretty obscure.

I have been trying to find a single customer of mine who has a A33 in their pool to have a play with - and yet to find one.

Heaps of A52, A53, A5xS 5G, A7x, A0x etc.

Maybe the limit to the A33 is intentional!

gajan

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#2964381 7-Sep-2022 18:11

Hi team -

Understand there is some excitement in getting up and running with VoWiFi - rest assured we are working closely with the device manufacturers to get the Spark Network support enabled as quickly as possible. Will try and keep this thread in mind if we get some more certainty around the release schedules, hopefully soon.

My comments and remarks are not necessarily of my employer.

sen8or

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#2964477 8-Sep-2022 08:03

Good on you for chiming it, there is clearly more to it than flicking a switch somewhere. Hopefully the device compatibility roadmap only has really short roads......

pootie

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#2964590 8-Sep-2022 10:41

Hi everyone, just chipping in here to make some points about the world of carrier customisation in 2022.

But firstly, it’s worth noting that mobile networks in NZ are all different and each targets different priorities for their customer bases based on their needs, which is perhaps why Spark has opted to embark on implementing this capability a bit later than other operators.

Unfortunately, mobile devices and mobile network features are not as ‘plug and play’ as you might expect. Although there are standards - there are a couple of significant challenges when it comes to enabling these features.

Virtually all modern smartphones support IMS services like VoLTE, VoWiFi and SMSoIP. Modern handsets also support a huge number of bands and of-course many are now 5G capable.

Pre IMS, to make a phone work, life was pretty simple. If a device supported the appropriate 3G band(s) for your carrier of choice, at most, you had to enter the internet APN and SMSC details manually and you could call, use data and send messages. If you purchase your phone from a carrier, you’d expect those to be pre-populated.

Unfortunately, IMS services require significantly more carrier specific parameters to be configured, and most handsets do not allow users to edit these. Ideally, you shouldn’t have too.

Handsets should also ‘understand’ which features a carrier actually supports. Handsets trying to use features that are not supported can lead to bad or confusing user experiences, can impact on network signalling or in worst case, can cause something like an emergency call not to work correctly.

Similar story when it comes to eSIM & 5G, and there are also an assortment of under the hood features such as fast dormancy and battery life saving features that can only be optimised by handset makers and carriers aligning their parameters.

So there is the huge matrix of handset makers and carriers.

Each carrier has their own unique set of parameters and supported features.

Each device maker has their own mechanism for managing the carrier specific customisations.

For the most part, carriers and handset makers must go through an exercise of sharing parameters and usually also testing to make sure these features work properly. This was easier in the early days of smartphones when handset makers would make individual software SKUs for each carrier. This downside of this approach was that a phone purchased from carrier A might not include the carrier settings for carrier B.

Most handset makers now use more regional or global software SKUs with various ways of doing ‘SIM detection’ or ‘carrier config’ type application of carrier settings.

Most handset makers work on an ‘opt-in’ model for carrier features. i.e. the setting is not visible or enabled unless they have gone through the parameter sharing + testing exercise.

2 other challenges are device lifecycles and Android.

After varying amounts of time, handset makers will ‘archive’ the software development of devices. Meaning they will only receive security patches and are no longer eligible for ‘new’ features - like carriers enabling various IMS type services. This is the reason older devices often miss out on new carrier features - even though they are technically capable.

IMS type carrier config is not part of AOSP and Android does not have a universal way of delivering all carrier configs. Virtually every Android device has a unique software SKU and different development and software release timing.

All this means that lining up a carrier feature launch, with a bunch of compatible devices is not straight forward and carriers have limited control over the handset enablement timing. I can’t think of too many genuine reasons a carrier would not want devices to support their features. In fact, I would argue that carriers want as many compatible devices as possible!

Typically with network feature launches such as this, the list of compatible devices is very small at the start, then ramps up rapidly.

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dhoulbrooke

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#2964737 8-Sep-2022 17:25

skyplonk:

Wonder if anyone in the wild has actually made a commercial VoWIFI call?!

I can confirm that it's worked for me since launch day 🙂

kiwiharry

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#2964772 8-Sep-2022 19:55

huckster:
More a question of website design. It could be read as Samsung - Android 12 or later OR Samsung A33 5G.
Add to that a lot of people talking about other Samsung phones and......

Apologies to @gajan. I suspect he is not the person who edits that page.

Yeah that is how I read that page today that any Samsung device with Android 12 is supported. Oh well, will check back in a few weeks.

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