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5s Wifi Calling?

U

UPBaylor

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 30, 2014
71
16
Quick question that a search just left me still unsure of the answer: Does the 5s support wifi calling with the latest iOS? I'm trying to find out for a relative. Thanks!
 
It has it on my 5S. UK, TMob/EE network.

The setting is carrier specific but yes, the phone itself does support it. So you'll need to check with the carrier for a definitive answer.
 
saintsfan1970 said:
I have a 5S on AT&T and it isn't supported; so it must depend on the carrier.
Click to expand...

My BIL is on AT&T also, so I guess not. We have AT&T, but we have 6s's so no problem. That seems illogical, but perhaps someone can explain it to me?
 
UPBaylor said:
My BIL is on AT&T also, so I guess not. We have AT&T, but we have 6s's so no problem. That seems illogical, but perhaps someone can explain it to me?
Click to expand...

I'm a little confused. Are you saying you have Wi-Fi calling on your 6S with AT&T, but saintsfan doesn't have Wi-Fi calling on their 5S with AT&T?

Or you don't have Wi-Fi calling with AT&T on your 6S either?
 
Sorry for the confusion. We have Wi-Fi calling just fine on our 6s's. saintsfan doesn't on his 5s. My BIL has a 5s and I was trying to research it for him.
 
This seems odd; the 5S supports Wi-Fi calling under T-Mobile.

Is there some sort of hardware in the iPhone 6 that allows it to support Wi-Fi calling under AT&T, that's lacking in the 5s, but the hardware isn't needed for T-Mobile? Or is this an artificial restriction from the carrier (at&t)?
 
AT&T doesn't support your device for Wifi calling.
iPhone 6 and newer iphones only.
AT&T has, since the inception of wifi calling, only supported it on iPhone 6 and newer iPhones (so 6, 6s, SE, iphone 7 and 7 Plus only at this time). They have never supported or enabled it for iPhones older than the iPhone 6.

So while the iPhone 5S as a device supports the feature, AT&T has never supported it on that device. They are able to pick and choose which devices they enable the feature with on their network.
 
I think AT&T decided to only support WiFi-Calling on the iPhone 6 and above because the 6 and up support VoLTE. Because of that, they can do handoffs between the cellular network and WiFi seamlessly. Otherwise, your call would drop when you moved out of WiFi range or the quality of the network dropped.
 
saintsfan1970 said:
Saintsfan doesn't have it on HER 5S :p
Click to expand...

Whoops! My apologies for the wrong assumption!

theshoehorn said:
I think AT&T decided to only support WiFi-Calling on the iPhone 6 and above because the 6 and up support VoLTE. Because of that, they can do handoffs between the cellular network and WiFi seamlessly. Otherwise, your call would drop when you moved out of WiFi range or the quality of the network dropped.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the more technical explanation. Is that different from Verizon and T-Mobile which (I think) both support WiFi calling on the 5S?
 
UPBaylor said:
Whoops! My apologies for the wrong assumption!



Thanks for the more technical explanation. Is that different from Verizon and T-Mobile which (I think) both support WiFi calling on the 5S?
Click to expand...
I don't believe Verizon supports it.
 
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