Wi-Fi Calling and Battery

[Stacked]

At my office there is consistently no service through AT&T unless I step outside which as you all already know drains my battery.

Does the AT&T wifi calling feature negate the battery drain from no cell service since technically calls are routed over wifi and not the antenna ?

 

[chscag]

At my office there is consistently no service through AT&T unless I step outside which as you all already know drains my battery.

Does the AT&T wifi calling feature negate the battery drain from no cell service since technically calls are routed over wifi and not the antenna ?

I can't speak directly to AT&T but I use WiFi calling with T-Mobile on my 6+ and have noticed no difference in battery drain or performance.

 

[Cergman]

At my office there is consistently no service through AT&T unless I step outside which as you all already know drains my battery.

Does the AT&T wifi calling feature negate the battery drain from no cell service since technically calls are routed over wifi and not the antenna ?

I don't believe so since it will continue to search for cell service, but if you turn airplane mode and wifi on, you can continue to make calls.

 

[mazdamiata210]

When I'm on the phone through wifi it seems to use less power, but not while the phone is in standby.

 

[weslsew]

At my office there is consistently no service through AT&T unless I step outside which as you all already know drains my battery.

Does the AT&T wifi calling feature negate the battery drain from no cell service since technically calls are routed over wifi and not the antenna ?

Yes. This is the best benefit of it. I've been using it and the phone uses the same amount of power as when you have full lte signal. It even turns off the cell signal indicator in the top left and just says att wifi

 

[viperGTS]

Yes. This is the best benefit of it. I've been using it and the phone uses the same amount of power as when you have full lte signal. It even turns off the cell signal indicator in the top left and just says att wifi

This doesn't happen with T-Mobile Wi-Fi, odd. You have to enable Wi-Fi Calling, turn on Airplane Mode, then connect to Wi-Fi to disable the cellular radio.

How come AT&T automatically disables the cellular radio and T-Mobile doesn't?

 

[bcave098]

This doesn't happen with T-Mobile Wi-Fi, odd. You have to enable Wi-Fi Calling, turn on Airplane Mode, then connect to Wi-Fi to disable the cellular radio.

How come AT&T automatically disables the cellular radio and T-Mobile doesn't?

When using Wi-Fi Calling, the network should change to "[carrier] WiFi" instead of the network name to tell you it's using WiFi not cellular

 

[weslsew]

This doesn't happen with T-Mobile Wi-Fi, odd. You have to enable Wi-Fi Calling, turn on Airplane Mode, then connect to Wi-Fi to disable the cellular radio.

How come AT&T automatically disables the cellular radio and T-Mobile doesn't?

Actually, I think it only does that when I have no cell service. But I have noticed the wifi calling only kicks on when there is no or very low cell signal. If you live where you always have good cell signal, your phone may probably never use wifi calling.

 

[chscag]

This doesn't happen with T-Mobile Wi-Fi, odd. You have to enable Wi-Fi Calling, turn on Airplane Mode, then connect to Wi-Fi to disable the cellular radio.

How come AT&T automatically disables the cellular radio and T-Mobile doesn't?

I don't believe that's correct. I have T-Mobile and leave WiFi calling on at all times. Whenever I am out of range of WiFi or any WiFi signal (my home network, Starbucks, etc) cellular automatically kicks in and the LTE sign appears on the phone. There should be no need to even mess with Airplane Mode.

 

[bushman4]

I don't believe that's correct. I have T-Mobile and leave WiFi calling on at all times. Whenever I am out of range of WiFi or any WiFi signal (my home network, Starbucks, etc) cellular automatically kicks in and the LTE sign appears on the phone. There should be no need to even mess with Airplane Mode.

Putting it in Airplane mode is just for test purposes to make sure it's working

 

[viperGTS]

When using Wi-Fi Calling, the network should change to "[carrier] WiFi" instead of the network name to tell you it's using WiFi not cellular

Actually, I think it only does that when I have no cell service. But I have noticed the wifi calling only kicks on when there is no or very low cell signal. If you live where you always have good cell signal, your phone may probably never use wifi calling.

I don't believe that's correct. I have T-Mobile and leave WiFi calling on at all times. Whenever I am out of range of WiFi or any WiFi signal (my home network, Starbucks, etc) cellular automatically kicks in and the LTE sign appears on the phone. There should be no need to even mess with Airplane Mode.

I think you guys missed the point. If you leave both Cellular and Wi-Fi Calling on, and are within range of a Wi-Fi network and have Wi-Fi Calling capability, your phone still has its cellular radio activated (how do you think it still gives you a cellular strength reading?).

There is definitely a need to use Airplane Mode, especially in areas where cellular service is bad, but Wi-Fi is usable. If you're on one bar of cellular but connected to Wi-Fi and using Wi-Fi calling, you're still going to have more battery drain compared to if you disabled the cellular radio.