[offtopic] Opinions on Freedom Mobile, please
Hi all. I was more than a little ticked off to discover that Telus has no plans to offer 5G to its mid-brand Koodo customers, even though its flagship Telus and low-end Public Mobile brands already have it. Now that Freedom Mobile is owned by Videotron, perhaps Canada's least-awful telco, I had another look. They have a 5G plan for the same money that I'm paying Koodo for 4G with 10GB more per month. Furthermore Freedom is the only telco usable in the Toronto subway, with service in all stations and two Line-1 tunnel sections (Vaughan to Wilson and St.George to Yonge/Bloor). Pretty well everywhere I usually go these days is within Freedom's 5G coverage area. with 4G elsewhere (including the non-Freedom "nationwide" network coverage). I don't care about international roaming, I have a different SIM for that. And as it turns out the cell tower closest to my home is a Freedom one. Still, I have a few concerns. Reviews for Freedom on Trustpilot are plentiful and almost universally vicious. So long as everything Just Works my customer service interactions tend to be limited to initial setup. Does anyone here have any real-life data points to offer? Thanks! Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
customer service, such as small changes in plans, not good. Sometimes spotty service in areas that should be strong (in Toronto), not all phones can be used with Freedom, my son gets more data for his hard earned buck, otherwise it works ok. I don't know the difference in speed between 4G and 5G. On Tue, 1 Aug 2023 at 23:09, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi all.
I was more than a little ticked off to discover that Telus has no plans to offer 5G to its mid-brand Koodo customers, even though its flagship Telus and low-end Public Mobile brands already have it.
Now that Freedom Mobile is owned by Videotron, perhaps Canada's least-awful telco, I had another look. They have a 5G plan for the same money that I'm paying Koodo for 4G with 10GB more per month. Furthermore Freedom is the only telco usable in the Toronto subway, with service in all stations and two Line-1 tunnel sections (Vaughan to Wilson and St.George to Yonge/Bloor).
Pretty well everywhere I usually go these days is within Freedom's 5G coverage area. with 4G elsewhere (including the non-Freedom "nationwide" network coverage). I don't care about international roaming, I have a different SIM for that. And as it turns out the cell tower closest to my home is a Freedom one.
Still, I have a few concerns. Reviews for Freedom on Trustpilot are plentiful and almost universally vicious. So long as everything Just Works my customer service interactions tend to be limited to initial setup.
Does anyone here have any real-life data points to offer? Thanks!
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56 --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On 2023-08-01 23:13, Don Tai via talk wrote:
customer service, such as small changes in plans, not good. Sometimes spotty service in areas that should be strong (in Toronto), not all phones can be used with Freedom, my son gets more data for his hard earned buck, otherwise it works ok. I don't know the difference in speed between 4G and 5G.
We'll have to see how things go with Freedom, with Videotron buying them. 5G is considerably faster than 4G on the 3.5 GHz "C" band. On lower frequencies, 5G provides a small improvement over 4G.
I've been with freedom (nee wind) for ~10 yrs. You can indeed get data on the subway but only at the stations, not between them while underground. So you get a habit of loading stuff right as you enter the station, then read it til you get to the next one. Historically the coverage was shit outside the main areas but I don't travel much. One time I went to Montreal and there was *nothing*. But it was ages ago. As to customer service, I haven't had any reason to contact it in years. In the past they were very good. I wouldn't be surprised if there was deterioration; that's how things go. I'm a pretty lazy consumer. I don't comparison shop once I am settled in somewhere unless there is a problem. Freedom is good enough for me. On Wed, Aug 2, 2023, at 3:09 AM, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
Hi all.
I was more than a little ticked off to discover that Telus has no plans to offer 5G to its mid-brand Koodo customers, even though its flagship Telus and low-end Public Mobile brands already have it.
Now that Freedom Mobile is owned by Videotron, perhaps Canada's least-awful telco, I had another look. They have a 5G plan for the same money that I'm paying Koodo for 4G with 10GB more per month. Furthermore Freedom is the only telco usable in the Toronto subway, with service in all stations and two Line-1 tunnel sections (Vaughan to Wilson and St.George to Yonge/Bloor).
Pretty well everywhere I usually go these days is within Freedom's 5G coverage area. with 4G elsewhere (including the non-Freedom "nationwide" network coverage). I don't care about international roaming, I have a different SIM for that. And as it turns out the cell tower closest to my home is a Freedom one. Still, I have a few concerns. Reviews for Freedom on Trustpilot are plentiful and almost universally vicious. So long as everything Just Works my customer service interactions tend to be limited to initial setup.
Does anyone here have any real-life data points to offer? Thanks!
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56 --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On Tue, Aug 1, 2023 at 11:55 PM bitmap <bitmap@imap.cc> wrote:
You can indeed get data on the subway but only at the stations, not between them while underground.
As I mentioned, they claim coverage in two parts of the Line 1 tunnel <https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/transit-coverage/toronto>: - The new part from Wilson to Vaughan - The downtown loop between St. George and Bloor/Yonge (which apparently includes the bit of Line 2 from Yonge to St. George) Have you tried those sections without luck? So you get a habit of loading stuff right as you enter the station, then
read it til you get to the next one.
That's what I've been doing with the Wifi, with spotty success :-)
I'm a pretty lazy consumer. I don't comparison shop once I am settled in somewhere unless there is a problem.
I'd like to be that way, but I didn't appreciate everything else moving forward to better service except for mine due to some cynical business calculation. Freedom is good enough for me.
Thanks! - Evan
Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote on 2023-08-01 20:09:
They have a 5G plan for the same money that I'm paying Koodo for 4G with 10GB more per month.
Already sounds enticing. I too have been a customer for ~10 years and recently got a free upgrade on data: I used to get 250 MB (yes, megabytes), seems I now have 705MB (odd number) and it's Freedom and Nationwide data. So, yay. Also, in BC we'd get free access to Shaw WiFi in a lot of locations which helped reduce my actual LTE data to 250MB or less monthly, easily. And one thing I really appreciate is that Wind Mobile would throttle users when they hit their data caps instead of charging a fortune for overages. I'll always appreciate that.
Pretty well everywhere I usually go these days is within Freedom's 5G coverage area. with 4G elsewhere (including the non-Freedom "nationwide" network coverage).
I'm curious why you're interested in 5G? I thought it was mostly something more useful for the mobile service providers (higher capacity per tower, etc.) and the slight increase in speed seen by devices wasn't really significant. Of course, I could be wrong, and your situation might be enlightening.
Still, I have a few concerns. Reviews for Freedom on Trustpilot are plentiful and almost universally vicious. So long as everything Just Works my customer service interactions tend to be limited to initial setup.
Does anyone here have any real-life data points to offer? Thanks!
Their front line support has been frustrating in the past, as with most companies. ESL script readers can be difficult to discuss technical issues with. That said, there's been some really good service on some calls. All in all, it's pretty infrequent that I need support these days, so I wouldn't be too concerned about that. I think some of the animosity toward them lingers from the "olden days", plus there's a certain level of mobile device snob that frowns upon "the poors" who seemingly can't afford anything better than Wind / Freedom. It's a weird attitude, but it's out there. Finally, there's a really handy app & web site that allows users to track *actual* coverage as measured by their devices and see real world results:
Check your favourite locations, the coverage of individual towers, specific carriers & bands, etc. Great and clever tool! Best of luck with it... rb
On 2023-08-02 05:57, BCLUG via talk wrote:
And one thing I really appreciate is that Wind Mobile would throttle users when they hit their data caps instead of charging a fortune for overages. I'll always appreciate that.
Did they throttle the users? Or their phones? 😉 I'm on Rogers and they also slow down the data beyond the cap. There is no extra charge for exceeding the limit. However, at 35 GB, I have never hit the cap.
I'm curious why you're interested in 5G?
I thought it was mostly something more useful for the mobile service providers (higher capacity per tower, etc.) and the slight increase in speed seen by devices wasn't really significant. Of course, I could be wrong, and your situation might be enlightening.
On the lower bands, 5G provides a small improvement over 4G. However, there are new, 5G only bands. For example, Rogers has service on 3.5 GHz, which provides a significant performance improvement. I've seen over 400 Mb with it.
On 2023-08-02 08:53, James Knott via talk wrote:
On 2023-08-02 05:57, BCLUG via talk wrote:
And one thing I really appreciate is that Wind Mobile would throttle users when they hit their data caps instead of charging a fortune for overages. I'll always appreciate that.
Did they throttle the users? Or their phones? 😉
Hmm. I thought only Apple throttled their phones based on age. I would have expected the carriers to be trhottling the network connection. 😉 I have been working on a plan to move my mobile number to a voip carrier and then just use the handset in a way that does not expose the number that the carrier uses. That way I can move between carriers at will and I can have a full set of call features without having to take the stupid plans the carriers offer. -- Alvin Starr || land: (647)478-6285 Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133 alvin@netvel.net ||
On 2023-08-02 09:35, Alvin Starr via talk wrote:
I have been working on a plan to move my mobile number to a voip carrier and then just use the handset in a way that does not expose the number that the carrier uses. That way I can move between carriers at will and I can have a full set of call features without having to take the stupid plans the carriers offer.
If you're worried about security, you might not want to do that. The cell phone calls are encrypted with IPSec, but those VoIP provides use plain SIP & RTP. At least that's what Fongo does.
On 2023-08-02 09:53, James Knott via talk wrote:
On 2023-08-02 09:35, Alvin Starr via talk wrote:
I have been working on a plan to move my mobile number to a voip carrier and then just use the handset in a way that does not expose the number that the carrier uses. That way I can move between carriers at will and I can have a full set of call features without having to take the stupid plans the carriers offer.
If you're worried about security, you might not want to do that. The cell phone calls are encrypted with IPSec, but those VoIP provides use plain SIP & RTP. At least that's what Fongo does.
That's why god invented SIP-TLS and SRTP. Its a good thing that my VIOP povider supports this. That being said..... Cell phone calls may be encrypted with IPSec but its not a match for moderately well equipped hackers. Ask King Charles. Once your call hits the PSTN your open to snooping from any number of sources. If your really concerned about security you will secure your phone with a hammer and then bury the shards in cement. -- Alvin Starr || land: (647)478-6285 Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133 alvin@netvel.net ||
On 2023-08-02 11:57, Alvin Starr via talk wrote:
If you're worried about security, you might not want to do that. The cell phone calls are encrypted with IPSec, but those VoIP provides use plain SIP & RTP. At least that's what Fongo does.
That's why god invented SIP-TLS and SRTP. Its a good thing that my VIOP povider supports this.
One one other thing they do is encapsulate the IPSec in UDP. This is to get through NAT, as IPSec is broken by it. It also provides seamless connection when moving between WiFi calling and the cell network.
Cell phone calls may be encrypted with IPSec but its not a match for moderately well equipped hackers. Ask King Charles.
Were Chuck's calls intercepted? I know Diana's calls were, but they were analog back in those days and very easy to intercept. A heck of a lot of stuff uses IPSec and I haven't heard of it being broken.
Once your call hits the PSTN your open to snooping from any number of sources.
Plain PSTN is rapidly disappearing. Everything is moving to VoIP in some form. I have "POTS" from Rogers, but it's VoIP from the box that sits on my shelf. I have no idea whether they use encryption with it.
On 2023-08-02 12:11, James Knott via talk wrote:
On 2023-08-02 11:57, Alvin Starr via talk wrote:
If you're worried about security, you might not want to do that. The cell phone calls are encrypted with IPSec, but those VoIP provides use plain SIP & RTP. At least that's what Fongo does.
That's why god invented SIP-TLS and SRTP. Its a good thing that my VIOP povider supports this.
One one other thing they do is encapsulate the IPSec in UDP. This is to get through NAT, as IPSec is broken by it. It also provides seamless connection when moving between WiFi calling and the cell network. To the best of my knowledge TLS and SSL are not subject to problems of NAT translation but I could be wrong.
Cell phone calls may be encrypted with IPSec but its not a match for moderately well equipped hackers. Ask King Charles.
Were Chuck's calls intercepted? I know Diana's calls were, but they were analog back in those days and very easy to intercept. A heck of a lot of stuff uses IPSec and I haven't heard of it being broken. There was the infamous call to now Queen Camilla.
There are still a number of security holes in the Cell phone system. For example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellphone_surveillance IPSec is only as strong as the keys. If the keys are compromised then all the rest nearly pointless. There are also the cypher and exchange protocols that may have been compromised. The IPSec protocol as a whole may not have bee broken but sub-components may be. https://futurism.com/the-byte/hack-watching-led That should keep you up at night covering over all the power LEDs on your devices.
Once your call hits the PSTN your open to snooping from any number of sources.
Plain PSTN is rapidly disappearing. Everything is moving to VoIP in some form. I have "POTS" from Rogers, but it's VoIP from the box that sits on my shelf. I have no idea whether they use encryption with it.
Why should they secure it because that would only make it harder for them to scrape information from you that they can monetize. But I am WAY to cynical. -- Alvin Starr || land: (647)478-6285 Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133 alvin@netvel.net ||
On 2023-08-02 13:43, Alvin Starr via talk wrote:
To the best of my knowledge TLS and SSL are not subject to problems of NAT translation but I could be wrong.
As I mentioned, one of the advantages of UDP encapsulation is seamless transition between the cell network and WiFi calling. If you enapsulated TLS, you'd get the same benefit. BTW, isn't SSL long obsolete, replaced by TLS?
Were Chuck's calls intercepted? I know Diana's calls were, but they were analog back in those days and very easy to intercept. A heck of a lot of stuff uses IPSec and I haven't heard of it being broken. There was the infamous call to now Queen Camilla.
I hadn't heard anything about that, but then again I have absolutely no use for the monarchy, so I try to ignore them as much as possible.
There are still a number of security holes in the Cell phone system. For example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellphone_surveillance
Those aren't about IPSec. They are other issues, which could also apply to VoIP apps and other traffic. BTW, I'm currenly reading a book "Pegasus", which is about a spyware app. Very interesting. https://mississauga.overdrive.com/media/8224018
James Knott via talk wrote on 2023-08-02 05:53:
On the lower bands, 5G provides a small improvement over 4G. However, there are new, 5G only bands. For example, Rogers has service on 3.5 GHz, which provides a significant performance improvement. I've seen over 400 Mb with it.
Is that due to 5G itself, or the paucity of devices supporting it, hence lack of congestion? Also, honest question for those more knowledgeable: does a doubling of frequency (i.e. 1700MHz to 3500MHz) equate to a doubling of bandwidth? Cheers, rb
On 2023-08-02 15:50, BCLUG via talk wrote:
Is that due to 5G itself, or the paucity of devices supporting it, hence lack of congestion?
It's due to the amount of bandwidth available on that band. The 3.5 GHz band is much wider than the others and the mmWave bands (not yet available in Canada) are much wider still.
Also, honest question for those more knowledgeable: does a doubling of frequency (i.e. 1700MHz to 3500MHz) equate to a doubling of bandwidth?
No, it's the amount of available bandwidth. The same bandwidth, on the different bands would provide similar results. Of course, the more users, the more it gets shared. Typically, the higher bands have more bandwidth than the lower ones.
On 2023-08-02 15:50, BCLUG via talk wrote:
Is that due to 5G itself, or the paucity of devices supporting it, hence lack of congestion?
Also, honest question for those more knowledgeable: does a doubling of frequency (i.e. 1700MHz to 3500MHz) equate to a doubling of bandwidth?
One other factor is the higher the frequency, the shorter the range, so the higher bands need more cell sites to provide the same coverage. This article has a table of the various bands Rogers uses. The lowest frequency band is 600 MHz and the highest is 3.5 GHz. Some bands are shared between 4G and 5G and others are not. There are also remnants of 2G and 3G listed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Wireless#5G_NR The band numbers correspond to this list of the various cell bands. https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/connectivity/5g-mobile-wireless-c...
On Wed, Aug 2, 2023 at 5:59 AM BCLUG via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
And one thing I really appreciate is that Wind Mobile would throttle users when they hit their data caps instead of charging a fortune for overages. I'll always appreciate that.
I associate the Wind brand with the former Egyptian ownership, which I'd always thought was a little sketchy and a reason I stayed away in the early days Most of the top-tier and second-tier brands from the Big Three appear to throttle rather than charge for overages (and allow you to "top up" max speed data). As far as I've looked it seems to be their bottom tier brands (Chatr, Lucky, Public) that cut service off after the limit though I haven't researched that tier deeply. I'm curious why you're interested in 5G?
I've been told that the latency improvement is even more useful than the speed boost in some uses. And anything that might improve speed, or coverage can't hurt. It's the full package (5G+10GB/month more+subway) that I find interesting, not any one component. Finally, there's a really handy app & web site that allows users to track
*actual* coverage as measured by their devices and see real world results:
Forgot about that. Thanks! - Evan
Evan Leibovitch wrote on 2023-08-02 07:58:
I associate the Wind brand with the former Egyptian ownership, which I'd always thought was a little sketchy and a reason I stayed away in the early days
Ah, right. And there was Russian involvement at some level too, I seem to recall? Still, as a name, Wind Mobile > Freedom Mobile IMHO. I just reflexively react to anything with "Freedom", "Liberty", or "Family" in the name by expecting them to actually advance the opposite.
Most of the top-tier and second-tier brands from the Big Three appear to throttle rather than charge for overages (and allow you to "top up" max speed data).
That's good. I'm pretty sure Wind was first to do that in Canada? They also introduced the `tab`, where others had `free` new phones. It made the cost of a new device quite clear, and replaced extortionate Early Termination fees with "pay off your tab and you're free to go". And they'd unlock your device (carrier unlock, not firmware). Pretty sure, now that I think back on it, that Wind Mobile introduced quire a few consumer-friendly policies that may now be the norm.
I'm curious why you're interested in 5G?
I've been told that the latency improvement is even more useful than the speed boost in some uses.
And that is correct, something I'd forgotten about. Speaking of latency and veering slightly off topic, anyone interested in a VPN from mobile device to (usually home LAN) would be well advised to check out WireGuard. High throughput (approaching theoretical maximum for the underlying carrier) and very fast to re-establish connections when moving from, say, WiFi to LTE. rb
On 2023-08-02 13:20, BCLUG via talk wrote:
High throughput (approaching theoretical maximum for the underlying carrier) and very fast to re-establish connections when moving from, say, WiFi to LTE.
With VPNs that use UDP encapsulation, there's no connection to re-establish. Every UDP packet stands alone. It's also irrelevant what network the packet originates on. I discovered this years ago, while sitting in the Linux Cafe (anyone here remember that?). I was connected via the store's WiFi and then noticed an open WiFi in the neighbourhood. I could switch connections without dropping the VPN. I was using CIPE VPN at the time, IIRC. This is also why you have seamless roaming between WiFi calling and the cell network, with VoLTE or VoNR.
On 2023-08-01 23:09, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
Furthermore Freedom is the only telco usable in the Toronto subway, with service in all stations and two Line-1 tunnel sections (Vaughan to Wilson and St.George to Yonge/Bloor).
Rogers has bought out BAI's network, the company which had been providing cell service in the subway. They will have some service in place by Sept., though it will take longer to cover the entire subway. Bell, Rogers and Telus have all said the BAI network was inadequate for them to use. Rogers has committed to sharing their network with competitors, but the discussion is how. Bell & Telus want an ownership share, which is not what Rogers has in mind. Rogers will be providing 4G & 5G, but BAI had been providing only 3G and some 4G, IIRC. Also, Videotron is a regional company, which has to roam on another carrier outside their areas. Acquiring will only slightly improve that.
On Wed, Aug 2, 2023 at 8:42 AM James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote: Bell, Rogers and Telus have all said the BAI network was inadequate for them
to use. Rogers has committed to sharing their network with competitors, but the discussion is how.
According to this Global News article <https://globalnews.ca/news/9616141/what-to-know-ttc-rogers-cell-network/>, Freedom is the only carrier offering the service now and will continue to do so. Bell and Telus want co-ownership of the network, Freedom seems content to buy access. Also, Videotron is a regional company, which has to roam on another carrier outside
their areas. Acquiring will only slightly improve that.
I don't grok that. Freedom has a national network of towers (including the closest one to my home) and has agreements with other carriers outside their area. Their current 5G deal offers seamless national service, though they warn that the phone could report roaming outside its own network. Indeed, it does not look like the Freedom and Videtron networks have been integrated much so far. - Evan
On 2023-08-02 09:57, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
Also, Videotron is a regional company, which has to roam on another carrier outside their areas. Acquiring will only slightly improve that.
I don't grok that. Freedom has a national network of towers (including the closest one to my home) and has agreements with other carriers outside their area.
Isn't that what I said when I mentioned roaming on another carrier? Freedom may have towers in various cities across the country, but how much overall coverage to they have? Rogers is the only company that is actually coast to coast, but even they don't have full coverage. For many years, Bell and Telus have roamed on each other's networks for years, even though they both have towers in some areas. You may recall, back in the 90s, when 2G was starting up. There were new networks, such as Microcell (parent of Fido) and Clearnet. They would have towers in the major centres, but roamed on other carriers elsewhere. Fido, for example roamed on Rogers. They also had to use a "backpack" between the phone and battery, to access the Rogers analog network, as their GSM phones wouldn't work on the Rogers IS-136 digital network. So, roaming on other carriers has long been a "tradition" in Canada. 😉 There were also several virtual carriers that relied entirely on other carriers. Sears is one that comes to mind, along with Petro Canada and 7 11. Many of them used the Microcell network, which meant they had to move to Rogers or Bell/Telus when away from the Microcell network. I don't know what's happening with Freedom on the subway, between being bought by Videotron and Rogers taking over the BAI network, but all carriers will have 911 access, as required by law.
EPILOGUE: Made the switch. Fairly seamless. The two people on staff (Steeles/Dufferin location) were knowledgeable and set things up seamlessly. I confirmed that I had (and was able to use) cell coverage in the subway stations and tunnels between Pioneer Village (Steeles) and Wilson. My one burp is that I'm having an issue turning on Wifi Calling, seems to be a handshake issue between phone and carrier. Will investigate. Speedtest reports 267Mbps down/66.5 Mbps up at home (though I neglected to do a "before" test with Koodo). Thanks to all who provided feedback. Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56 On Tue, Aug 1, 2023 at 11:09 PM Evan Leibovitch <evanleibovitch@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all.
I was more than a little ticked off to discover that Telus has no plans to offer 5G to its mid-brand Koodo customers, even though its flagship Telus and low-end Public Mobile brands already have it.
Now that Freedom Mobile is owned by Videotron, perhaps Canada's least-awful telco, I had another look. They have a 5G plan for the same money that I'm paying Koodo for 4G with 10GB more per month. Furthermore Freedom is the only telco usable in the Toronto subway, with service in all stations and two Line-1 tunnel sections (Vaughan to Wilson and St.George to Yonge/Bloor).
Pretty well everywhere I usually go these days is within Freedom's 5G coverage area. with 4G elsewhere (including the non-Freedom "nationwide" network coverage). I don't care about international roaming, I have a different SIM for that. And as it turns out the cell tower closest to my home is a Freedom one.
Still, I have a few concerns. Reviews for Freedom on Trustpilot are plentiful and almost universally vicious. So long as everything Just Works my customer service interactions tend to be limited to initial setup.
Does anyone here have any real-life data points to offer? Thanks!
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote on 2023-08-03 00:52:
Made the switch. Fairly seamless. The two people on staff (Steeles/Dufferin location) were knowledgeable and set things up seamlessly.
Nice.
I confirmed that I had (and was able to use) cell coverage in the subway stations and tunnels between Pioneer Village (Steeles) and Wilson.
Also, nice. Nice² even.
My one burp is that I'm having an issue turning on Wifi Calling, seems to be a handshake issue between phone and carrier. Will investigate.
I wish I could remember the procedure I followed to enable WiFi calling, but am drawing a blank. Once enabled though, it works quite well, even when initiating a call at home (WiFi) and walking outside range onto LTE. Seamless.
Speedtest reports 267Mbps down/66.5 Mbps up at home (though I neglected to do a "before" test with Koodo).
Crap, that's ~4-5x faster down and ~10x faster up than my home internet connection serving 5 people. Best of luck with it.
On Thu, Aug 3, 2023 at 4:32 AM BCLUG via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
My one burp is that I'm having an issue turning on Wifi Calling, seems to be a handshake issue between phone and carrier. Will investigate.
I wish I could remember the procedure I followed to enable WiFi calling, but am drawing a blank.
Checked some forums. One suggested turning on airplane mode, THEN tuning on wifi and enabling Wifi calling, then turning airplane mode off. It seems to have overcome my problem and the feature is enabled. Now to test.
Speedtest reports 267Mbps down/66.5 Mbps up at home (though I neglected to do a "before" test with Koodo).
Crap, that's ~4-5x faster down and ~10x faster up than my home internet connection serving 5 people.
Similar situation here, but my home uses WAY more than 30GB/month -- likely, so does yours. - Evan
On Thu, Aug 3, 2023 at 8:41 AM James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On 2023-08-03 04:31, BCLUG via talk wrote:
I wish I could remember the procedure I followed to enable WiFi calling, but am drawing a blank.
What phone do you have? Bear in mind, not all plans support it.
Most of the top- and middle-tier brands have it (ie, Telus and Koodo do, Public does not) for their post-paid (subscription) plans. But it's also phone-specific. Each carrier has an explicit list of supported phones. For example, here are Koodo's <https://www.koodomobile.com/en/help/wifi-calling> and Fido's <https://www.fido.ca/support/mobility/wi-fi-calling#do-i-need-a-specific-device-or-plan-to-use-wi-fi-calling> . - Evan
On Thu, Aug 3, 2023 at 6:33 PM BCLUG via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
What phone do you have? Bear in mind, not all plans support it.
Pixel 4a.
Pixels and iPhones tend to be very well supported for this. Koodo supports Pixel 2 or newer, running Android 8 or newer. I was doing some more research - most commentary on Wifi calling says it benefits the carrier more than the customer, since it clearly puts less stress on cell infrastructure, at least for your last mile. The main consumer benefit is claimed for people who may have bad cell reception but good wifi, such as in office towers. But TIL a new fun fact about Freedom. No matter where you are physically when you place or receive the call-over-wifi, to Freedom you are connecting from inside Canada. That means, when at a foreign hotspot, you can talk without roaming. At least that's how I interpret the answer to Question 4 of Freedom's wifi calling FAQ page <https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/vowifi-terms>. But it's not just them, Rogers seems to have the same policy <https://www.rogers.com/support/mobility/wifi-calling-everything-you-need-to-know#how-is-wifi-calling-billed-when-i-am-in-canada%3F> . - Evan
participants (7)
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Alvin Starr -
BCLUG -
bitmap -
Don Tai -
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Evan Leibovitch -
James Knott