A couple days ago we told you an Apple support document confirmed Bell would support Wi-Fi Calling for the iPhone. Well, now it appears the company is officially announcing support for the feature.
In an email, a Bell representative explained Wi-Fi Calling will be supported on “iPhone 6s and 6s Plus when they launch on the 25th.” The company’s social media teams are also explaining this news to customers as well:
@acerace113 Hi Ryan Wi-Fi calling is only supported on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus at this time. ^MW
— Bell Support (@Bell_Support) September 18, 2015
Bell says Wi-Fi Calling is included with plans that feature unlimited nationwide calling and texting.
Rogers and Fido launched Wi-Fi Calling (with some hiccups) for customers the same day iOS 9 was released, for those iPhone 5c or newer. Bell looks to be only supporting the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, in what looks on the surface as a move to push Apple’s newest smartphones. I’m sure this exclusive for the latest iPhone 6s will make some older iPhone users on Bell feeling left out.
Wi-Fi Calling allows customers to continue to send and receive voice calls and text messages in areas of little to no coverage—but connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Now, the only question remains is when will TELUS announce support for Wi-Fi Calling, despite saying they would not support the feature for now.
Update: As expected, Virgin Mobile will also get Wi-Fi Calling:
@ohnoscotty It'll be available! Stay tuned for more deets! ^tm
— Virgin Plus Care (@VirginPlusCare) September 18, 2015
Update 2: Rogers emailed us to say “the issue some customers were having enabling the Wi-Fi Calling feature is fixed.”
In addition, the company said “We’re offering Wi-Fi Calling on a number of devices which really allows a large segment of customers to take advantage of this exciting new feature,” seemingly hinting the contrast between Rogers and Bell.
Bell and Virgin Mobile users (those set to receive an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus): are you excited for this?
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wow… i mean i never expected bell to even consider supporting wifi calling since they are just… well weird and backwards thinking when it comes to phones but… just the “s” series… pretty shitty
very shitty. Every other carrier that supports this with iPhones goes back to the 5S.
you mean 5c right?
Probably. I know that the 5 isn’t and the 5C is based on the 5, but yeah the 5C might be too.
Update: Virgin Mobile to support it too, as expected.
I just got off the phone with Bell support (and before I read this).
The support person said that only the iPhone6 Plus was support, not the iPhone6. (And the new iPhone6s’s too)
This is bizarre — and I wonder if they mis-read the materials.
But after they said only the iPhone6 Plus, I asked about the upcoming 6s’s — and they said they would be as well!
Anybody heard this?
I spoke with Telus last night and was told they ARE supporting WiFi calling but it’s in the Beta testing stage. You can download their Telus Extend App from the App Store, but you need to sign up for an invitation to use it until it’s up and running. I had the CSR add it to my line and tested it. Seemed to work fine. You need to make calls through the app (like the Magic Jack App), not just dial the phone the regular way.