SaltyNZ: No, provisioning is still off. A regulatory thing we need signed off first.

My test iphone on 11.2 is ready and waiting :-)

SaltyNZ: No, provisioning is still off. A regulatory thing we need signed off first.

Have you got a list of what phones are going to have this now and in the next few months or is it only the latest and greatest only??

@SaltyNZ one question with emergency calling and oversea with vowifi on - I am right in guessing you would get NZ 111 service not the local emergency call center if calling over wifi? 

bagheera:

 

@SaltyNZ one question with emergency calling and oversea with vowifi on - I am right in guessing you would get NZ 111 service not the local emergency call center if calling over wifi? 

 

On Samsung, the handset will attempt the emergency call on traditional cellular if any coverage is available. As it will be signaled as an emergency call, you should get the local emergency services. If there is no cellular coverage then the handset will attempt the call on VoWifi, but we will reject it as we cannot connect you to the local emergency service (effectively this is a call from New Zealand to wherever you happen to be standing, and we won't know what the real number of that service is).

An iPhone will give you the option to use either, but VoWifi isn't going to work outside NZ for the same reasons.

old3eyes:

 

SaltyNZ: No, provisioning is still off. A regulatory thing we need signed off first.

 

Have you got a list of what phones are going to have this now and in the next few months or is it only the latest and greatest only??

 

iPhones will have it for sure. I think some of the earlier Samsung flagship models will get it (e.g. S7), but the handset list isn't my area, so other than iPhone I'd be speaking out of school. Ultimately the intention is to make it as widely available as practical because it is in our best interests for it to be: as Steve Biddle said, VoWifi allows us to effectively extend our coverage, so the more handsets that support it the better. A prerequisite for that is that the manufacturer is still providing software updates, so if your handset isn't getting updates anymore then it won't be getting VoWifi either.

Will the new Civil Defense alerts still get pushed out to phones connected by WiFi Calling?

GregV:

 

Will the new Civil Defense alerts still get pushed out to phones connected by WiFi Calling?

 

Not over the VoWifi service itself. The CD alerts are a Cell Broadcast service. VoWifi does not emulate cellular access, it's a different access altogether. So if you only have coverage via VoWifi you won't get them - but I believe you still receive them if your handset is camped on cellular as well. 

Hope the service still launches this week,

Linux

Great to see that in we will have WiFi Calling at least with one provider, hoping the rest follow their lead. It is about time. 

Our family are farmers and we have 0 signal from all three providers.  WiFi calling would make communication much easier both personal and business.  It is very surprisingly still how many people, even fellow rural dwellers, no matter how often you try explaining the importance of calling on the landline, end up calling your mobile and leaving a voice message with an important detail or about a meeting, and of course we end up retrieving them a week later when we are in coverage.  If we have to call a cell phone, we can't use mobile plan minutes, landline to mobile still adds  up on the landline bill. That alone is sometimes $20 or $30 with our landline provider. 

I'm intrigued and pleased to see that it will work when overseas as I'm living overseas at the moment and my provider here in Spain does have WiFi calling, but they block it so if you outside of your home country it automatically disables WiFi calling and you WiFi calling won't work until you return. I guess WiFi calling not working abroad here in Spain was designed to generate more revenue from roaming, but now of course somewhat ironically, roaming with the EU is legislated so the phone companies can't charge roaming subscribers. 

Have there been any comments from other NZ providers (or implication?) about also implementing it? Fingers crossed our provider does. 

Ha ha, I thought that might come up :)

We were very happy 2degree customers since they launched, but in the last year Vodafone and Spark's networks were improved markedly with the 700MHz RBI upgrades, and our experience and speed since changing means we have to wait until 2degrees performance is competitive in our area again. 

Ah, well, it works on prepay too so there's nothing stopping you from having one *and* still keeping your other provider. In the last year we (I am also rural) have gone from 'just enough 2degrees signal to not consistently roam but not enough to actually use it' to 50Mbps+ LTE on 700.

Oops likes we have hijacked this topic completely - one last question? Where approx are you?  Last time I looked 2degrees weren't doing any 4G in our area 700MHz or others.  In fact I even called before we changed and they wouldn't give any details of any future plans and thats when we decided to leave.  Ha - that would require a new handset and number :S