Wi-Fi Calling settings

[xKrNMBoYx]

I am on a quest to stretch my run time as long as possible.

Recently our family switched to T-Mobile from Sprint and upgrade to smartphones. I'm sure all of you know what Wi-Fi calling is so i won't explain what it does. I'm just curious on which Connection Preference is better for me. You can set Wi-Fi calling preferences to Wi-Fi Preferred, Wi-Fi Only, and Cellular Preferred. The default setting for all our smartphones were Wi-Fi Preferred, but I switched it to Cellular Preferred thinking that Cellular would be more stable.

The thing is both cellular signals and wifi signals are stable at home. I stay in the basement so I sometimes get the Data Roaming signals or my Cellular signal has zero bars.

Is it better to have it Wi-Fi Preferred to save battery? My phone will lose cellular connection sometimes so using Wi-Fi Preferred setting will allow me to have stronger stability.

All your input will be valuable. Thanks.

.:edit:.

God I searched for similar threads after posting this thread. I'm looking through the posts to see if anything will help.

 

[sherifone]

If you aren't walking in and out of Wifi coverage in your house, I would leave Wifi preferred on.

I've found the call quality to be better, as well as having greatly improved battery life. It actually disables the cell radio. I don't have any links handy, but I can tell you with certainty that Wifi uses considerably less power than a cell radio (shorter distance, etc...).

And if you haven't done it, call T-Mobile to make sure that they have free wifi calling enabled on your account. There is no cost associated with it. So when you're on wifi, you have unlimited minutes.

There is only good that comes from the Wifi calling

 

[xKrNMBoYx]

Actually Wi-Fi Preferred Calling still uses you're minutes. That's what T-Mobile says and other users also. But if you're getting free calls through T-Mobile great for you.

Thanks for the comment on Wi-Fi using less power than cell radio. Picked up a call with Wi-Fi this morning and I realized that the Wi-Fi bar goes down to 1 bar when I pickup the call.

 

[ItnStln]

There's a free WiFi Calling feature. You must have that feature on your account otherwise the calls will count against your minutes.

 

[xKrNMBoYx]

Did you have to ask separately or did T-Mobile set it up that way when they initially started up the phone?

 

[ItnStln]

Did you have to ask separately or did T-Mobile set it up that way when they initially started up the phone?

The rep told me about the Wifi Calling feature when he activated my phone. It's a seperate feature/SKU (SOC I think they're called). On my contract it was listed under the features section with my insurance and visual voicemail.

 

[xKrNMBoYx]

Well it seems that I have Free Wifi Calling enabled on my plan when I check My T-Mobile online

 

[ItnStln]

Well it seems that I have Free Wifi Calling enabled on my plan when I check My T-Mobile online

Awesome, than you're good to go! As an added bonus, if you travel internationally set the settings to "WiFi Only," and if you're on WiFi you won't be billled roaming minutes.

 

[xKrNMBoYx]

Thanks

 

[ItnStln]

Thanks

You're welcome.

 

[xKrNMBoYx]

I ended up changing it back to Cellular Preferred. My battery seemed to lose charge faster after I switched it to Wi-Fi Preferred. Also in my battery my Cell Standby was 40%.

I know that the S3 has some weird setting that makes Cell Standby battery usage percentage inaccurate, but I didn't have this problem until I switched the Wi-Fi calling settings. So i ended up changing it back to where I had it.