Eir Wi-Fi Calling Question ?

CreativeAnto

Calling all tech heads...

I have been told that Eir's WiFi calling feature only works if you have a smartphone handset that has a dedicated Eir mobile plan..? Is that correct... as I'm trying to decide between Eir or Vodafone for Fibre To The Home... and Vodafone has just launched it's WiFi Calling services to a very limited amount of handsets currently, but I have been told by Vodafone it will work with any phone that is supported by their WiFi Calling service regardless of what Mobile Network they are on... but when I asked Eir... I got mixed answers... online support said it will work with mobiles on any network... Eir phone support said only with Eir Mobile Plans... can anyone here confirm the real-life situation on this..?

Regards,
Anthony

EdgeCase

The Wi-Fi calling is a mobile service, it has nothing to do with the fixed line broadband. You can use Wi-Fi calling with any broadband connection. So you could use Eir Wi-Fi calling on your Virgin Media Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi in Australia for that matter too. It doesn't care what ISP you're using.

Vodafone currently seems to only support it on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and 8+ and only on bill pay.

Eir supports it on a wider range of Samsung handsets and all iPhones that have the ability to do Wi-Fi calling. It is only available to bill pay customers.

long_b

I'm using WiFi calling on Eir on an S7 and I find it to be very unreliable in my experience.

Often doesn't "turn itself on" and drops calls after a few minutes when it does.

CreativeAnto

Cheers EdgeCase for your response and contribution... so are you saying... that eventhough I will have Eir Broadband.... as soon as my iPhone becomes supported by Vodafone WiFi calling, I will be able to use this on my possible Eir Fibre Broadband... I don't need Eir Broadband plus Eir Mobile plan for it to work..?

I'm just trying to decide who to go with for WiFi calling... as I have no signal where I live and the SureSignal I have from Vodafone is edging closer to being unsupported... so need a calling solution fast... as I work from home.

FTTH arrived about 1 month ago... so want to be sure if I go with Eir... who seem to have the best deals... if Vodafone enables WiFi calling on the iPhone 8 Plus and wife's iPhone 8, daughters iPhone 6S that we will be able to make calls without the aid of the 3G SureSignal.

I hope that makes sense...

CreativeAnto

Hi Long_B and thank you for your comments.

HHhhhhmmmm... that's a worry as that's what my Vodafone SureSignal experience is currently like... unreliable. Thanks for letting me know.

EdgeCase

Yeah.

WiFi calling is a feature of the mobile phone network. It allows you to call over *any* WiFi network.

Basically, it's VoIP service that is integrated into the mobile phone network and your handset. When you call and are connected to any WiFi signal, your voice signals are sent to the mobile network's IMS (exchange) rather than over the mobile network's radio signals.

From your point of view anytime you're connected to WiFi, regardless of who operates that WiFi, your phone will talk to the "exchange" over the internet.

When it's working it's totally seamless. The only thing I would say is that at present, they can't do handoff between WiFi calling and 3G voice, so if you're on a WiFi call and you walk out of WiFi coverage, your call will drop. That won't be sorted until 4G voice is switched on.

On Eir mobile, it also handles your text messages. I'm not sure if that's true of Vodafone too, but their information is somewhat patchy.

It's likely that they'll launch WiFi calling on iOS, but there's no announcement. Also I would assume 3 will eventually get their act together and do similar. The technology is off the shelf stuff from Ericsson or Nokia networks.

You can go with any internet provider you like Digiweb, Virgin etc are all fine.

CreativeAnto

Amazing information EdgeCase.... thank you very much.

interesting you said about Eir WiFi calling supporting text messages also as the new Vodafone WiFi calling states clearly it won’t work with text messages which is very annoying as we would still need to hang onto our SureSignal which Vodafone really doesn’t want to support anymore.

I reckon I might need to go Eir when I’m out acontact in November of this year.

Thank you so much for all your great help and advice.

Regards,
Anthony

EdgeCase

I'd be surprised if Vodafone don't support iOS fairly quickly but you'd never know.

Eir did a major upgrade of Meteor's systems around the time of the rebrand.

Check your 3G or 4G mobile coverage with a prepay SIM before you do anything though.

I've used Eir WiFi calling on an iPhone and it works flawlessly also its not custom software, apple supports it on any iPhone. So once you're connected to Eir the iPhone will have a menu in the settings that allows you to activate it. You accept some T&Cs and it just works.

Riesen_Meal

I have a Google Pixel 2 which is capable of WiFi calling but not available with Eir prepay plan, you need to have a bill plan apparently which isn't an option for myself...

EdgeCase

Fieldog wrote: »

I have a Google Pixel 2 which is capable of WiFi calling but not available with Eir prepay plan, you need to have a bill plan apparently which isn't an option for myself...

I'd be curious to know if that works with Eir at all.
They were specifically mentioning Samsung too and I've a feeling it's a feature of the Samsung dialled which is not stock android.

If you know anyone with an eir bill pay SIM, it'd be interesting to see if it works.

Also btw their SIM only bills without any contract are cheaper than pay and can be cancelled without notice by just porting to another network

CreativeAnto

Thank you again EdgeCase but can you explain more about what you said with “Check your 3G or 4G mobile coverage with a prepay SIM before you do anything though.”

i’m currently with Vodafone so that all works with the SureSignal, but without that device we have zero bars in our home.

ED E

If you're in a blackspot you can now (due to a change in the law) buy a repeater to provider coverage inside your home. They arent cheap but are independent of the networks and don't require special handsets or provisioning. Signal just improves.

When your SS dies (and its likely to now) you wont get a new one.

CreativeAnto

Thanks for that advice. I heard about those repeaters alright and the change in the law, but we don’t even have signal outside our home either, our home is in a total black spot. WiFi calling is our best hope and Eir’s version that supports calls and text messages seems to be the solution available out there. Vodafone is calls only and no text messages.

babelfish1990

CreativeAnto wrote: »

Calling all tech heads...

I have been told that Eir's WiFi calling feature only works if you have a smartphone handset that has a dedicated Eir mobile plan..? Is that correct... as I'm trying to decide between Eir or Vodafone for Fibre To The Home... and Vodafone has just launched it's WiFi Calling services to a very limited amount of handsets currently, but I have been told by Vodafone it will work with any phone that is supported by their WiFi Calling service regardless of what Mobile Network they are on... but when I asked Eir... I got mixed answers... online support said it will work with mobiles on any network... Eir phone support said only with Eir Mobile Plans... can anyone here confirm the real-life situation on this..?

Regards,
Anthony

Vodafone's WiFi Calling is very much inferior to Eir's. Vodafone have geo-blocked it to Ireland, which means you can't use it when abroad. Eir's WiFi Calling is not restricted and can be used anywhere in the world that you have access to WiFi. This means you can avoid expensive roaming charges outside of EU. While this isn't directly related to your indoor coverage requirement, it is a nice bonus.

I am not an Apple fan and use Android myself, but one thing about Apple is that they don't generally tolerate half-baked product launches. I wouldn't expect them to certify Vodafone Ireland's WiFi calling service until it at least supports text messaging. Since Apple already support Eir's service, you can rest assured that it meets their standards.

While theoretically you can use WiFi calling on any WiFi, it does require a good quality uplink and low latency. Eir FTTH should be absolutely fine for supporting it, but occasionally I have found dodgy WiFi in some Hotels and public buildings, where there is probably too much contention, and the quality is not sufficient.

CreativeAnto

This is amazing and valuable information Bablefish1990 and very much appreciated. I'm going to go with Eir FTTH 300MB Business Package and hopefully, it will just work, so I won't have to call their Tech Support... all I gotta do now is dig up my garden and driveway to lay new ducting... but long term I reckon it's the way to go. I'm with Imagine... it's great when you have no other options... but now with FTTH sitting on a pole on the road outside my home... this is the only way to go!!

Thanks all for help and advice...

EdgeCase

Geoblocking WiFi calling is just Vodafone trying to retain gouging non EU roaming charges.

We used Eir in the US without any issues on WiFi calling

boniekt

Hi everyone, After holidays in Poland I got a bill from GoMo. I noticed I have been charged for some phone calls I made. I wrote to customer support and got this:

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch! 

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I have checked and can see you were charged for calls made over wifi.  Wifi calling is only free when you are in Ireland. 

If you are roaming in the EEA and using GoMo WiFi Calling, your usage will be deducted from domestic standard call and SMS

allowance as described in your SIM Only Service.

 Calls made to Irish numbers will be charged from your domestic plan allowance.

Calls made to the roaming country within which you are staying in or to any number outside of Ireland will be charged at standard

international rates from Ireland. If you prefer to pay standard roaming rates for these calls, you have to disable GoMo WiFi Calling

Any further issues please contact us via webchat on https://gomo.ie/help-support/

Thanks!

The GoMo Team

GoMo Wifi Calling is free only in Ireland unfortunatelly