In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

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.

It was only really the joining of Orange and T-Mobile that allowed any operator to have enough spectrum to move things forward, and a net result was that Ofcom sped up the 4G phase 1 auction.

I think 3 have the best solution. Vodafone want you to spend £100 on a special box.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Three_inTouch

Post deleted by therioman

In reply to a post by bookey:

2G on all networks is not equal, O2 use a half rate codec for 2G voice for capacity reasons, Vodafone use it in selective areas, EE use a full rate codec.

As mentioned in other posts EE (and now VF) use the HD-Voice codec on the 3G networks but both calling parties have to be on 3G and the same operator.

When any operator launches VoLTE they will use the HD-Voice codec then no transcoding will be required between 4G and 3G covered calling parties.

VoLTE is coming but Wifi Calling will come first...

I noticed this as soon as I joined and recently have spoken to aa family member who uses EE's network as well as I and the call quality was unbelievably good.

The fact that O2 uses a reduced quality codec for calls makes sense as when I was with O2 I found the calls to be "rubbish" quality.

I'm looking forward to Wi-Fi calling, though at the moment I haven't actually needed an alternative method of connection as EE's coverage seems more than efficient for holding a call and using data (both 3&4G)

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

I think 3 have the best solution. Vodafone want you to spend £100 on a special box.

Apps are a good stop gap, and cheaper than Vodafone SureSignal - but SureSignal is incredibly good (we have them in our office and we don't have WiFi).

However WiFi calling will beat the apps, as you won't have the problems that 3's InTouch and O2's TuGo apps have, separate SMS in the app, different ring tone in the app etc etc.

James

Interesting. It is a pity you can't get one box that handles all the networks!

In reply to a post by jchamier:

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.

To answer my own question, android could do it 3 years ago, so if its new phones only, its a business decision by the carriers.

Since my phone is rooted it will be interesting if I can force the feature enabled like e.g. how tethering can be done via rooted phones when locked by carrier.

I would be a bit more sympathetic if they at least supported phones they been selling during 2014, but they listing the S6 as a requirement. No S5/S4.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Interesting. It is a pity you can't get one box that handles all the networks!

No network would sign up to that, to many spectrum issues, the box that will handle all networks is your wifi AP, when all mobile operators offer wifi calling.

In reply to a post by bookey:

VoLTE is coming but Wifi Calling will come first...

Wifi calling is now available on EE for some handsets, just text 'wificalling' to 150 to activate.

I believe its going live on 13th April for iphone 6 and 6+.

I just successfully did it on my s5 (not supported officially according to EE)