Is called VoWiFi and means “voice over Wi-Fi”. It finally arrives in Italy thanks to Tim, WindTre (and its low cost brand Very Mobile) and is a technology that allows you to make and receive phone calls from a Wi-Fi hotspot to which the phone is connected using the internet and not via the data connection provided by VoLte operators, i.e. “voice over Lte”.
Potentially a nice update considering the many places where traditional coverage is not optimal – sheds, basements, buildings with particularly thick walls, cellars, garages and so on – and instead we have a Wi-Fi network. Certainly in those situations, calls via WhatsApp, Telegram, FaceTime and with dozens of other messaging and video conferencing apps can be used without problems. But if you want to use your own mobile numberor maybe if they expect calls to it, is (it would be, and you will understand shortly why the conditional) an excellent completion of the offer.
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How VoWi-Fi works
Be careful though: not all hotspots are good. That is, it is not enough to have just any Wi-Fi network. WindTrefor example, has just launched WiFi Calling (it’s also called that and the company was the first to experiment with it in Italy) to make and receive voice calls in the absence of a mobile signal exclusively through one WindTre Wi-Fi network. An enormous limit that risks making the novelty essentially useless even for those who have the (very few) currently supported models. Functionality – the second obstacle – is in fact currently reserved for Samsung Galaxy S22 e Xiaomi 12 Pro but in the coming months it will be extended to more devices. Other things to know: you don’t need to set anything up or download applications, obviously you don’t pay and the phone call should go from traditional to Wi-Fi coverage without problems.
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Reasons for Wi-Fi connectivity limitations
The fundamental limit concerns the need to to track – in terms of metadata, of course, and in the event of a request from the judicial authority also to intercept – the outgoing and incoming calls from your network. If this is taken for granted by your base radio stations and there is a well-structured interchange and tracking system in classic roaming between operators, everything is more complex for calls via IP. For this, at the moment and in the absence of legislative changesWi-Fi calling can take place only if the wireless network that we have available at a certain moment comes from a router of the same mobile operator. It is unlikely that an interchange and control system comparable to the one that orchestrates the hookups on traditional telephone cells can be set up in a short time.
After the announcement of WindTre Tim also arrived: the service, also in this case free, is called Wi-Fi entry and also in this case it is only available with the group’s Wi-Fi: “To use the Voice Wi-Fi service, it will be sufficient for Tim mobile customers to be connected to the Wi-Fi of any Tim consumer hotspot, fiber (fttc, ftth) o Adsl – explains a note from the company – there is no need to download any app or activate a dedicated offer; the service uses standard Voice over Wi-Fi (voWiFi), commonly called Wi-Fi Calling, based on VoIP.
In this case, the compatible devices at the launch of the service are the most recent Samsung in the range S22, Xiaomi from the 12 Series they Oppo A17 and also in this case other brands will arrive in the coming weeks, evidently including Apple.
The difference between VoWiFi, VoLte and VoIP
Let’s do a bit of order, to conclude, among the different technologies. VoWiFi e VoLte are assimilable: the data is transmitted through the internet in both cases. But in the first, calls are routed exclusively to one rete wireless independent of the operator (in theory, as we have seen in Italy it cannot go like this for now), in the second one via the mobile internet network provided by the operator, so if there is no signal, the call cannot go through or arrive. It is always the operator who manages the communication. The VoIP is yet another technology: it allows you to employ any internet connectionwhether wireless or mobile, to make calls through specific applications. And therefore in no way VoIP is connected to the operator that we use on the smartphone.