Can you video call Vodafone phone from XT yet?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Can you video call Vodafone phone from XT yet?

hamish225

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#62741 14-Jun-2010 09:31

As per the subject can you video call vodafone phone from XT yet?

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johnr

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#341413 14-Jun-2010 09:52

Not yet as no agreement is in place for Video calling between the 2 networks

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hamish225

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#341415 14-Jun-2010 09:54

are you guys planning too? or is it not economical?

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johnr

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#341417 14-Jun-2010 09:56

hamish225: are you guys planning too? or is it not economical?

No idea what plans around this sorry

hamish225

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#341418 14-Jun-2010 09:58

oh, okay, well thanks :)

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NonprayingMantis

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#341422 14-Jun-2010 10:12

people use video calling??

I figured it was just a gimmicky thing to increase the list fo features your phone has and make it more attractive to geeks who value this sort of thing :P

keewee01

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#341443 14-Jun-2010 11:02

Given video calling capability has been around on the phones for what is now some years it is disappointing that there is still not the ability to use it between networks. Personally we had a situation where over many months last year we would have used it. (Skype was not an option)

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timmyh

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#341447 14-Jun-2010 11:03

Hence Apple doing video calling (Facetime) over IP. Currently limited to WiFi but it will happen over 3G sooner or later.

The 3G telco video calling standard (which is circuit based) has been a typical example of how slow and bureaucratic the telco world is, that unless there is a cumbersome agreement and testing between every pair of networks you can't even do the following:

- video call between networks in the same country
- video call from a foreign network back home (which is the cliche scenario of a tired travelling person wanting to say goodnight to their family)
- know what the cost of a video call will be
- very poor video quality.

ockel

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#341466 14-Jun-2010 12:02

timmyh: Hence Apple doing video calling (Facetime) over IP. Currently limited to WiFi but it will happen over 3G sooner or later.

The 3G telco video calling standard (which is circuit based) has been a typical example of how slow and bureaucratic the telco world is, that unless there is a cumbersome agreement and testing between every pair of networks you can't even do the following:

- video call between networks in the same country
- video call from a foreign network back home (which is the cliche scenario of a tired travelling person wanting to say goodnight to their family)
- know what the cost of a video call will be
- very poor video quality.

Although Apple will tell you that the iPhone 4 is the first phone to do video calling. People in the US are shocked to know that some of us have been doing video calling for years "you can do that with your phone?" is the most common response I've had. And that started more than 18 months ago.

I've been able to say goodnight to my family when overseas - its the joy of being with a global provider rather than a country specific one.

When it gets beyond gimmicky and provides interesting revenues to telcos (like SMS) then agreements will be signed. Although if regulators have their way and reduce the cross border revenue opportunities then no one will bother signing anything and we'll have to rely on manufacturers and 3rd party apps for work-arounds.

Telcos have been poor with fixed line videoconferencing so we rely on alternative videoconferencing capabilities and the telcos miss out. Cest la vie.

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sbiddle

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#341542 14-Jun-2010 14:51

timmyh: Hence Apple doing video calling (Facetime) over IP. Currently limited to WiFi but it will happen over 3G sooner or later.

The 3G telco video calling standard (which is circuit based) has been a typical example of how slow and bureaucratic the telco world is, that unless there is a cumbersome agreement and testing between every pair of networks you can't even do the following:

- video call between networks in the same country
- video call from a foreign network back home (which is the cliche scenario of a tired travelling person wanting to say goodnight to their family)
- know what the cost of a video call will be
- very poor video quality.

Vodafone have had video calling to and from a large number of foreign networks for many years now. It certainly works to (my understanding) every Vodafone Group network whether you're calling from the foreign network or to the foreign network along with a large number of other networks. It's also pretty common for networks in many foreign countries to have video calling interconnects, NZ would certainly rate as an exception rather than the norm.

And "poor" video quality is oviously a subjective thing. Video call are limited to 64k as that is the limit of a single channel. For stationary images I find the quality fine, obviously if you start moving around you're subject to limitations of the encoder.

quickymart

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#341655 14-Jun-2010 19:01

I remember back in the early days of texting in NZ, you could only text between Vodafone and Vodafone handsets or (very few) Telecom to (very few) Telecom handsets. Eventually everyone was able to text everyone.

richms

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#341704 14-Jun-2010 21:49

quickymart: I remember back in the early days of texting in NZ, you could only text between Vodafone and Vodafone handsets or (very few) Telecom to (very few) Telecom handsets. Eventually everyone was able to text everyone.

I remember that, went in and got a new phone that could do it from telecom when it was launched, got back to the office and tried texting and it didnt work. Called them to be told I could only text to telecom phones.

Really is pathetic to launch phones with features that dont work to everywhere, but its been the norm for telcos from what I have seen. Look at 2 degrees and texting for an example of hiding things not working as you would expect.

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