A year ago Rogers confirmed with us they intended to support iOS 8’s new Wi-Fi calling feature, but nothing materialized, much to the dismay of customers, and with no explanation why there was a delay.
Now, it appears the carrier will actually launch Wi-Fi calling for iPhone users running iOS 9, according to internal documents detailing training of staff at retail and call centres around the feature, reports MobileSyrup.
The feature is being touted as a solution for customers in areas with poor reception, such as within basements of buildings and other environments with thick walls, such as in some high rise towers. Wi-Fi calling will allow customers to still receive SMS and MMS messages when no cellular reception is available, and will still take from your account’s plan.
The document details postpaid Fido customers will also have access to the feature, along with postpaid Rogers customers.
MobileSyrup says “The document we received notes that a “new, anticipated Apple device” will already have iOS 9 installed,” which most probably assume will be the next-gen ‘iPhone 6s’ expected to be announced on September 9 (if BuzzFeed’s John Paczkowski is right, yet again).
Apple states Wi-Fi calling will be supported on the iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The feature is turned off by default and must be turned on by going to Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling > ON.
You’ll know Wi-Fi Calling is active when it appears after your carrier’s name, so in the case of Rogers or Fido customers, they’ll see “Rogers Wi-Fi” or “Fido Wi-Fi” within their iPhone’s status bar. At this time, Wi-Fi calling is not supported on Apple Watch.
Currently, Wi-Fi calling is available in the U.S. on Sprint, T-Mobile and soon for AT&T customers on iOS 9 beta. It has been widely available in Hong Kong on carriers 3, SmarTone, and in the United Kingdom on carrier EE.
Are you excited to get Wi-Fi Calling support for your iPhone on Rogers and Fido (postpaid customers) once iOS 9 is out?
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It will come out of your plan… so wait, does that mean if I’m a postpaid subscriber, it will use up my minutes? Because if that’s the case, why bother?
Would you rather no service?
There is no technical reason for it to use up your minutes. That’s just the way Rogers has decided to implement billing. They might change the minds but likely they will bill for minutes and texts used over wifi. In the past, with their UMA wifi calling, wifi usage outside of Canada used to be included, but then they started charging roaming fees (without ever explain how the hell you can be roaming while on wifi). It’s purely a billing decision.
But as Cornfed said, if you are going to use up your minutes anyway, using wifi will only mean an improvement of those calls when you are in a low coverage area.
Well the thing is, I already use FaceTime Audio / Viber to make calls over wifi and they seamlessly hand off to 3G when I step out of wifi range.
These wifi calling apps work pretty well, so I fail to see how this initiative will help anyone other than Rogers. I find it ridiculous that they could theoretically charge clients for calls made in areas where there’s no service.
Well, facetime Audio and Viber both come with restrictions. If you make a call to someone without those installed you may not be able to at all (maybe Viber supports calling non-Viber users now, not sure). With wifi calling, you just call whomever you normally would. Also, for incoming calls to your cell number, wifi calling is seamless, while Viber and facetime calling are not. With Viber, at best, it means maintaining another account and number and app, while wifi calling is fully integrated.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both. But for people that just want to make and receive calls without worrying about whether the other party has the same app/service and not having to launch and maintain separate apps, wifi calling has definite advantages. It’s unfortunate that Rogers will deduect the wifi minutes and texts from customer buckets, but that’s the decision they’ve made for now.
Indeed, this’ll be a boon for one friend and a few colleagues who live in either rural or heavily forested locations
Telus needs to get on this and stop wasting time with this Extend app. Why add features to the phone that already exist and add unneeded complication?
We’ve heard this before about this same feature. It’s been over a year and a full OS version since they first announced this. Why do we think they will do it this time?
Training documents for Rogers employees and resellers.
I’m on Fido and an iOS 9 Public Beta user, was hoping it was on there already but it’s not 🙁
Stupid question. Can you make and get calls on this ? Or only SMS/MMS ?
It’s for calls as well
Thank You !!!!!
No such thing as stupid questions … Only stupid responses.
so jaded with this ill believe it when i see it…
Wifi has got to help! Rogers coverage here in NL is otherwise the pits!!
Don’t forget the ability to receive calls as well. Of course you can call someone using FaceTime if they have an iPhone over wifi. The thing that really useful about this is if you live in a basement and someone needs to get ahold of you when you are in your room with no service. The call will still come through. That’s nice. As far as billing goes, Rogers has unlimited plans for almost everyone now anyways, so I’m sure they aren’t sweating it. You know who should really put effort into implementing this though? Wind
And yes. Rogers’ unsolicited declaration of support for this for iOS 8 was a joke, and I quickly lost even more respect for them as a result. NOBODY ASKED YOU TO LIE ROGERS!
I can hardly wait for WiFi calling to be live. Where I live I have to go outside to make a phone calls otherwise my call will fail half way threw a conversation. I’m with fido now and was going to switch to the first carrier to offer this feature.
why is there no love for the orignal iPhone 5???
The Rogers document stated support for iPhone 5, but Apple’s support document on Wi-Fi Calling, updated this July, does not list iPhone 5 as being supported. Who will you believe?
Rogers documents stated 5s/5c – 6/6 plus and the new iphone. Nothing about the 5 from Rogers end.
MobileSyrup stated iPhone 5, maybe they misread the memo.
What about Rogers One Number? wasnt built into the phone dialer, but was wifi calling.
Why should Rogers restrict this to post-paid customers? Why not any Rogers customer?
Postpaid customers bring consistent monthly revenue versus some prepaid customers, and this looks to be a ‘perk’ of being a monthly customer.
No doubt, I just find it frustrating.