Verizon Wireless Offering Wi-Fi Calling Next Year

[exfileme]

Verizon Communications talk Wi-Fi calling.

Verizon Wireless Offering Wi-Fi Calling Next Year : Read more

 

[Gurg]

What this does is put another mail in the coffin of the phone companies. if priced as it should be, can have a home phone again on wi-fi for absolutely minimal cost.

 

[zanny]

What this does is put another mail in the coffin of the phone companies. if priced as it should be, can have a home phone again on wi-fi for absolutely minimal cost.

I've been on Freedompop for two months now. The data coverage of Sprint 3G is more than good enough to cover my call needs wherever I may go. And it comes wtih 200 minutes / 500 messages / 500 megabytes a month free. So I think the nail in the coffin is already here.

 

[rwinches]

"even scored around 30 patents "

So they're just waiting to patent troll when the big fish get established.

Data speeds at McDonalds is jerky enough so I can't see VoIP/Calling being good.

If you were out of Tower range or Roaming this might be a good option.

Freedompop is high priced if you choose one of the 'real' data plans. They are getting more high speed coverage though.

 

[allawash]

If AT&T had pursued this a year ago, I would still be a paying customer. Only place I didn't get good service was at my house. Best they offered me was to buy an additional piece of equipment for hundreds of dollars, pay a monthly fee, and hook it into my router, that I pay for. No thanks!

 

[tvieson]

I honestly don't see any advantage to this. Drops in cell communication happen in more rural areas with little to no wireless access than in large city environments were wireless is every where. I can maybe understand taking traffic off the cell towers and placing them on wireless networks, but I'm sure many business or corporate facilities already have there wireless locked down preventing this free access as it is.

Ironically enough, areas with bad cell access are also the same areas with limited to no high speed internet.

The only advantage I see is at home use, and I can't even say how much of an advantage that is.

 

[Vexillum]

I'm confused... I've been using T-Mobile Wifi calling since 2003. How is this new?

 

[fkr]

as i used to be a verizon tech you will see many people within major city limits that because they are in an apartment or they are just between towers or there house is made of brick that they get no coverage in there house. this will cut down on call volume for tech service and is a great idea.

 

[spectrewind]

@Vexillum - It isn't new... At all.

 

[godkane]

Have been using Republic Wireless for several months now that has been doing this for a while now. Glad one of the main wireless companies is changing over. Hopefully the price will drop in half too, like Republic Wireless. $5 for Wi-Fi only, $10 for voice and text, $25 for 3G, $40 for 4G per month.

 

[Rob_C]

Letting the Tower hand you off to WiFi (obviously) benefits the Carrier, otherwise _their_ Equipment would not do the handoff.

This is a means of jerking back the 'free' WiFi, by giving you a 'Cookie' when you go to WiFi and making you eat it while your on your Call.

I went WiFi half a dozen years ago. Where I could find open/free WiFi, or while I was in range of my own Router, I used WiFi. I keep my Data off and try to avoid using 'Cellular Data' whenever possible (except for SMS).

If you can find an Application that does Video Chat and works over WiFi you can have free calls whenever you are in range of WiFi. With Cellular-to-WiFi Handoff you need to be certain you do not ROAM from the free (WiFi) Channel to the high cost Cellular Network.

https://www.youtube.com/user/LowLightVideos