Hi, regardless of which device will become the next to be supported by SfOS, e.g. the xperia 10iv or even the recently announced xperia 10v, please bear in mind to enable not only VoLTE but also VoWiFi this time (which is probably only a build-in configuration setting which was neglected for the xperia 10ii/iii).
Thank you in advance:)
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If it was that easy they would already have done it.
Also; your title does not match the post - in that it does not mention VoWiFi.
I agree with the title but I have to figure out how to edit it in the first place.
As far as I understood, the current VoLTE implementations were rather kind of ‘quick and dirty’ poc-hacks to sort out connectivity issues in countries who dropped 2G/3G support and Jolla does not have resources to look into it further.
I’d expect a newer implementation for a successor device would also never be touched again once somehow working, thus, the only way to get VoWiFi activated would probably be either in the first implementation or never:-D
I have sorted your title (and category).
But all the same, i don’t see how upcoming devices should be much different - especially compared to the 10 III in this regard. The code is not overly device-specific from what i have seen. This never-again-touched code exists mostly in your imagination. So limiting it only to upcoming devices makes no sense IMO, as it does not obviously make anything easier.
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I was referring to this thread but I might have got it wrong. Thank you.
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I don’t see any statements there supporting your theory - not a whole lot of statements at all to be honest.
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VoWiFi should DEFINITELY be supported by SFOS as soon as possible regardless of whether it is easy for Jolla to implement or not. It is NOT some gimmick but standard mobile communication technology, and actually for now (and years to come) the only hope for people living (or travelling) in areas where 3G network was shut down and 4G coverage is sh*tty. I happen to be one of such persons, and I can only envy my wife being able to have perfectly clear voice calls via our wireless home network from her iPhone thanks to it supporting VoWiFi, whereas my calls most of the time get dropped to 2G with voice quality so shitty that sometimes I can’t understand some words, not to even mention getting completely out of coverage in some parts of my house, which is actually worse than it was in the 1990’s. I do not consider it a valid excuse that “it would need work”. Of course it would. But it is an extremely important function.
As I understand it - please correct me if I am wrong - the main technical difference between VoWiFi and VoLTE is how the call (which is actually a data transmission) is routed (via WiFi and operator’s gateway dedicated to it, rather than via mobile connection/network), whereas everything else (voice encoding/decoding, identification, billing, etc.) is actually the same. If so, then let’s not exaggerate difficulties of implementing it. Definitely easier than ever enabling the remaining two cameras on the 10 III and forward.
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That’s every day at work for me too.
1 LTE bar (that doesn’t even get you proper calls or data) but both of my numbers work perfectly fine with crystal clear quality on the iPhone with Wi-Fi Calling.
For one of the 2 numbers that I have one the iPhone I have a twin sim that I also use on the 10 III.
Sometimes I forget and pick up the Sony and the result is always the same. Insanely crappy quality, half of what the other person says is getting chopped and after a few seconds just silence.
I wanted to say that it feels like going 30 years in the past, but even then I didn’t have these issues to be honest.
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As far as I understood (and pointed out in the other thread) call routing and encoding is handled by the modem automatically and it’s probably rather a configuration issue than an implementation issue, which, however, cannot be examined further by Jolla due to limited ressources at present.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
I’ve just checked and the official name of the VoWiFi service on T-Mobile PL is VoLTE WiFi, so even the name shows that it is basically the same technology.
Therefore, it is hard for me to believe that it would be so difficult or time consuming to implement it in SFOS as they’re saying.
While true; what your operator markets it as has no bearing on anything.
The problem is that it is completely undocumented; and they have to reverse-engineer how Android does it. It is very likely very doable; but if you don’t know how, that can still take ages to figure out (even if it is just a matter of some enabling settings, some routing and other “basic” things).
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Sure thing. But if they don’t even try then we’ll never get it. And the problem will get bigger as more and more operators turn off their 3G networks because 4G coverage is much more challenging. And they don’t really invest anymore in 4G but mostly in 5G, which is even more challenging when it comes to coverage (due to small cells) so it’ll take ages to get back usable signal levels anywhere outside of large cities. Where I used to have nearly 100% signal accross my entire house since I moved in 17 years ago, now in some parts I have no coverage at all and in the rest the of the house the signal is too poor to sustain VoLTE calls and they drop to barely usable 2G.
In such circumstances, if I can’t have VoWiFi support anytime soon, I may be simply forced to move away from SFOS, no matter how much I like it and would like to keep using it, because the ability to make and receive voice calls from home is obviously the most important. And I’ll obviously change the phone rather than the location of my house.
The only thing I can do before I am forced to do so is to try to show Jolla how important it is to some of us and to urge them to give it a try.
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That’s not true.
It’s the Qualcom Snapdragon X12 modem, which interface and instruction set is well documented and available.
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Do you call this available?
To access more Snapdragon X12 LTE Modem resources, you need to be a member of a verified company. Company verification is initiated by filling out our access request form.
How do you know what that grants access to?
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You make this out to be a general and very big problem. It is not.
4G/LTE can and does operate on lower frequencies than 3G/UMTS too - as does/will 5G/NR.
I don’t recognize what you mean with 2G being unusable for voice. Whre i live i would drop to 2G before we got VoLTE, and it was just fine.
And to repeat; i do think it is a worthwhile feature, but you’re blowing it out of proportions.
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Oh yes, for me it is. Just because for you it is not, does not diminish how it affects others.
Simply, when the call gets dropped to 2G, its voice quality in most cases becomes so terribly bad that one can’t comprehend some words. It’s like if voice was encoded at some 4 kHz / 8-bit and then further compressed with a lossy codec removing all high frequencies from it. Then it goes even further, eventually turning into silence, when I need to hang up and redial.
Which clearly isn’t just my problem, as @Kanthal also reported having similar severe quality issues.
Whether it is SFOS or the network at fault for the call quality on 2G, I have no idea and no time or will to investigate. The root cause is simply bad signal level and it doesn’t take rocket science to understand it. To my complaints my operator responds that they’re only responsible for coverage outdoors and they don’t care for signal quality indoors (which used to be around 100% with 3G network), so there’s SH*T I can do about it.
Anyway, the ACTUAL POINT is that VoWiFi would fully solve this problem for me, just like it does for my wife on her iPhone, providing her with full coverage and crystal clear call quality all around our house, completely REGARDLESS of that cr*ppy mobile network coverage. Whereas the lack of VoWiFi on my SFOS phone means that I can barely use my phone at home. As simple as that. So YES, for me it is a big problem.
Yes, the magic word “TOO”.
Well, hopefully one day you will find yourself living or working in an area with similar network coverage issues such as I’ve been having since the 3G network was shut down in March, and then we’ll talk about what is or isn’t blown out of proportions.
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Totally agree with you. Where i am the 3g has been shut down since last year so i’ve been restricted to whatsapp calling only because there’s no volte on my xa2 ultra or my 10 plus. I bought a 10 iv last year with the hopes of sfos support soon. Still patiently waiting.
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I am sorry to point in a personal direction here, but there are people for whom literally any problem goes under the I-am-considering-to-change-OS-category.
This is legitimate but it lessens the impact of such affirmations.
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I bet that you can read, it’s just that you didn’t bother to read carefully enough, so let me repeat it for you.
That alleged “literally any problem” in this case is no longer being able to have normal phone conversations in my own home due to insufficient mobile network signal level, both 4G and 2G, with no perspective for it to change anytime soon, as already described twice.
4G inside my home is actually unusable because it instantly drops to 2G. And 2G signal, which only 1-2 years ago used to be nearly 100% just like the now shut down 3G, now is barely 5%, so, clearly, they must have shut down some of 2G base stations along with 3G, leaving suburban residential areas like mine barely covered - usable outside but not indoors.
While maybe for you inability to have normal voice calls from your own home is “literally any problem”, in reality it is THE problem, because it is THE functionality the mobile phone is for, and THE functionality that in the current world one can’t normally function without.
And while with an iPhone or any Android phone such situation is easily solvable just by enabling VoWiFi and patching faulty mobile network coverage with strong signal of own home WiFi network (which is what all my neighbors and even my wife do), on SFOS there is no solution for this.
Or do you know any? I mean some reasonable ones, not moving house or no longer making phone calls while at home. Come on, be productive and tell us how you would resolve this “literally any problem” other than switching to a VoWiFi capable device/OS.
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You maybe need something like this:
Outdoor / roof antennas here:
or here:
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