International Roaming and Wi-Fi Calling

[sidsub]

Can anyone relate their experiences with international roaming on Fi and wi-fi calling? I see that here in the US, if I have both a cell signal and a wi-fi connection, the cell signal is generally preferred for phone calls. Is the wi-fi preferred when you're roaming abroad? Or did you have to force the phone to use wi-fi by disabling the cell connection?

I'm traveling in a couple of weeks and want to know what to expect. Thanks.

 

[monsieurms]

Can anyone relate their experiences with international roaming on Fi and wi-fi calling? I see that here in the US, if I have both a cell signal and a wi-fi connection, the cell signal is generally preferred for phone calls. Is the wi-fi preferred when you're roaming abroad? Or did you have to force the phone to use wi-fi by disabling the cell connection?

I'm traveling in a couple of weeks and want to know what to expect. Thanks.

I use T-mobile, which has easy wi-fi calling for free. Your mileage may differ.

On my Android phone, I set it to "wi-fi calling preferred," all the time, so if I am connected to wi-fi, it will choose that as the first option (and not use minutes at home or abroad). No reason not to, even though I tend not to use many minutes at home. I don't know what you use. You may be able to make that setting as well. It can also be set to "cell network preferred," of course, but that's not what you want here.

I was warned by a T-mobile rep, however, that sometimes if you are on wi-fi calling in a hotel, while that is generally free, the connection can be lost and if lost, it may transfer seamlessly to a cell connection on the international network. They said they had no control over that. It sounded a bit far-fetched as to why I'd be suddenly dropping wi-fi connections with no warning, but just letting you know.

 

[sidsub]

I use T-mobile, which has easy wi-fi calling for free. Your mileage may differ.

On my Android phone, I set it to "wi-fi calling preferred," all the time, so if I am connected to wi-fi, it will choose that as the first option (and not use minutes at home or abroad). No reason not to, even though I tend not to use many minutes at home. I don't know what you use. You may be able to make that setting as well. It can also be set to "cell network preferred," of course, but that's not what you want here.

I was warned by a T-mobile rep, however, that sometimes if you are on wi-fi calling in a hotel, while that is generally free, the connection can be lost and if lost, it may transfer seamlessly to a cell connection on the international network. They said they had no control over that. It sounded a bit far-fetched as to why I'd be suddenly dropping wi-fi connections with no warning, but just letting you know.

I've done this with T-Mobile as well, but Fi doesn't have the wi-fi preferred option (you can only turn on wi-fi calling and have the phone and network pick the mode). I'm looking specifically for experiences with Fi. Thanks.

 

[monsieurms]

Ok, sorry. Didn't realize it was different.

 

[PhiPsi32]

I sort of addressed this in the other thread. WiFi works fine. Really well actually. Global roaming can take a while to kick in. There was a bit of delay before my handset connected to the local network.

With regards to Fi bypassing WiFi for cellular connectivity . . . I don't think I can answer with the specificity you're looking for.

The literature I read on Fi stated that Fi always prefers WiFi to cellular connections. That's been my experience. Have I been billed for calls to the US? No. Your experience may be different.