could not resist, the nokia phones had WIFI calling 4-5 years ago.... leap frog technology between vendors or what

In reply to a post by iand:

could not resist, the nokia phones had WIFI calling 4-5 years ago.... leap frog technology between vendors or what

Blackberry had UMA on Orange years ago, but that never took off either.

WiFi calling is quite different, and seamless. I have friends on T-Mobile USA who have had it a while and its very impressive when you see it working.

Anything that gets rid of the need for a femto cell like the Vodafone SureSignal is a good move in my book.

In reply to a post by bookey:

Don't worry, these iPhones will support Wifi Calling when launched
5C
5S
6
6+

Excellent news

I was hoping this thread would benefit from your wisdom, bookey - you were the person I had in mind when I made the comment about "others ... in a better position to offer properly informed comment".

In reply to a post by bookey:

SRVCC is painful and difficult, it is better to push 4G coverage to be greater than that of 2G and don't provide any level of fall back....

Every time I've read something about SRVCC, it's accompanied by commentary that amounts to "you really don't want to go there". It sounds so difficult to get right that I can see the advantages of building a 4G network that makes it unnecessary.

In reply to a post by bookey:

2G network has another 20 years left in it, the spectrum used may decrease but a lot of M2M type services rely on this, solid base layer and have no need for high bandwidth services.
Expect the 3G network to cease before that of 2G, 4G is a much better data layer and a much better blend of spectrum.

There is consideration to use HD-Voice on the 2G stack but it would be more spectrally efficient to move 10Mhz of spectrum from 2G to 4G to shift the capacity.

My comments about 2G were from the perspective of phone and mobile broadband users. I long for the day when I can get better than a 2G signal everywhere I use my devices. As things stand, there is no network that currently offers better than 2G service in all the locations I visit regularly, so I work round this by carrying a 4G phone on one network and a 4G Wi-Fi hotspot on another.

Once the networks reach the point of being able to service phone and mobile broadband devices without needing 2G for fill in coverage and for circuit switched fallback in the absence of VoLTE, they can then run a data and SMS only 2G service in minimal bandwidth for M2M applications such as alarms and smart meters. M2M hardware is price sensitive and these devices only need to exchange small amounts of data, so GPRS or EDGE is more than sufficient. This sort of 2G voice switch off can happen gradually, with 2G voice service remaining in areas of coverage difficulty until the networks are content than the 4G coverage is sufficient.

2G technology will also live on in other contexts. I'm not sure whether Network Rail have completed their GSM-R network yet, which is replacing their legacy voice and data networks.


I can see the attraction of getting rid of the 3G air interface once 4G coverage and device support reach a suitable point. 3G is an "in between" technology that even in the DC-HSPA configuration doesn't offer the data capacity phone and mobile broadband users will increasingly demand, nor the coverage that 4G should eventually offer. 3G also has no advantages for M2M, which doesn't need the greater data bandwidth.

Ultimately, reusing the spectrum currently dedicated to the 3G air interface for 4G makes sense, not least as the majority of devices should support LTE-A carrier aggregation (allowing them to operate on multiple bands at once) by the time it becomes feasible to withdraw 3G.

Consumers and networks alike should derive maximum benefit from legacy free 4G service for phone and mobile broadband devices.


It is possible to discern a pathway towards the future in all this. Legacy air interfaces can only be discontinued once all users can move to newer technologies. There can be no 2G voice or 3G switch off whilst these air interfaces are still needed for circuit switched fallback, so VoLTE is an important element of moving towards a legacy free future.

funny enough for me 2G quality beats 3G in my tests.

Also after a discussion odigitalspy where I told everyone 2g has longer battery life I ran tests on my new phone, and indeed leaving the phone idle in 2g vs 3g/4g and using 2g for calls has much better battery drain. During idle the difference isnt huge maybe 30% or so, but during calls its massive about 300% more usage on 3g vs 2g. Obviously I have no data for call battery drain on 4g.

What 'i do on my phone but requires root access si use an app called intelli3g.

Default mode is 2g and the mode in use when phone is idle or using wifi is 2g. Likewise 2g used for calls, 2g also has the advantage it has much better coverage and signal stability.

If i enable data mode on the phone it will auto switch to 4g (or 3g if no 4g signal). If I disable data mode on the phone or if the screen is off for 15 minutes then it will auto switch back to 2g. The latter isnt perfect tho as that creates s situation where if the screen is off long enough data mode is still enabled but is in 2g, so my preferred behaviour would be for data mode to auto turn off after 15 minutes which would also trigger intelli3g to switch back to 2g as well.

interesting PDF

Speaks a story where someone from europe comes to the UK, is shocked by the standards we have here where we happy to sit on obsolete technology as long as it makes money and he pushed the company forward.

regarding wifi calling.

http://ee.co.uk/ee-and-me/network/wifi-calling

I find it hard to believe a new phone is required to use such tech, do you think it will work on all phones or will the carriers deliberately artificially limit it to brand new phones only?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I find it hard to believe a new phone is required to use such tech, do you think it will work on all phones or will the carriers deliberately artificially limit it to brand new phones only?

Can't see why that would be in the network's interests. However with no regular income stream, why would Samsung, HTC, Sony etc, create new firmware for phones 2 years or so old, such as the Galaxy S4, S3 LTE, and even S5, when the solution is to sell an S6 ?

I don't see EE or Vodafone paying Sony/Samsung/HTC to make them newer firmware either.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

Speaks a story where someone from europe comes to the UK, is shocked by the standards we have here where we happy to sit on obsolete technology as long as it makes money and he pushed the company forward.

Yes, It was very encouraging!

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

regarding wifi calling.

http://ee.co.uk/ee-and-me/network/wifi-calling

I find it hard to believe a new phone is required to use such tech, do you think it will work on all phones or will the carriers deliberately artificially limit it to brand new phones only?

It's related to the chipset in the device, not the firmware. Some older handsets might be supported that have not yet been listed...