Living without Wifi Calling

As a Canadian, I've never had the advantage of T-Mobile's wifi calling, however we have our own alternative which isn't too bad at all. Fongo (formerly Dell Voice). A good internet connection is required though, otherwise you may experience lag and/or low quality calls. On the plus side, you get a new phone number in any locale you want. Most of Canada is covered. So for instance, if you're in Vancouver and have family in Toronto, it makes sense to get a Toronto number so they can call you without incurring long distance charges (exactly what I do ). You can even set it up so calls dialed to that Toronto number get forwarded to your actual Vancouver number. Pretty nifty! They have a texting option as well, however that will cost you. Voicemail is included, and is free!

As far as free text messaging goes (and incoming calls, so long as you don't want to spend any money), a great service covering both the US and Canada is Pinger. Once again, you get a brand new phone number, though not as important for texting. The app itself can integrate your carrier's calls and texts, too, if you so choose (enabled by default - I typically disable it).

Fortunately, for me wifi calling isn't make or break. The bars here are generally 'good enough'. But...

An interesting (though maybe too much of a work around for most) would be to simply fully back up the official rom with wifi calling and your custom rom and then you can switch between them. Need wifi calling at work? Wipe and restore to the official rom after you get there. Want the custom rom at home, just wipe and restore that backup.

I know it works with Clockworkmod's backup and restore as that is what I use with swaping atm to test battery usage between roms. A restore brings back everything exactly how it was left.

(Perhaps the only real issue would be to be done with any OS specific changes. If you insall a new app and want to keep it then another backup would be required or it would not be there next time. Other things like contacts, calendar via google syncing isn't a problem as it just syncs changes between them via wifi. No need to do backups for that* - just wipe and restore any time. Also, the amount of space/time could be a problem if someone has too much stuff.)

*Point to point out, if anything is changed in the restored rom which affects goole sync before google is finished syncing then that could cause something to not be synced and thus lost forever. Unsure which side would lose. Haven't run into it personally. Backups are always good regardless.

Other than that, I just ordered cables for usb otg which on my phone requires the official rom (or a rom based off of it). So I want to see how that goes and may [continue] to do the swapping of roms for that. For me and how I use the phone its not a problem.

Another idea... would be to simply have another phone with wifi calling and do sim card swapping.

Guess this is the post of all about swapping.

Magic jack app 100% free
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^ quality though

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The Vonage app works great for Wifi calling. That is what I am using. People will still be able to see your existing phone # on caller ID.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vonage.TimeToCall&hl=en

yeah ive been plagued with this dilemma as well.. right now i just use the CM9 which has T-Mobile wifi calling. however the calling barely works (just shows call screen then beeps to disconnect) it does do the texting 95% of the time.

i do have the tmobile visual voicemail so it alerts me if i get a voicemail.

i thought about using google voice but it looked to want to import my number and i was afraid it mess up the regular carrier..

i dont like using the apps that assign a different number so i think im stuck with ICS until someone hacks it into JB..

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---------- Post added at 03:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:49 PM ----------

Dizmatic said:

The Vonage app works great for Wifi calling. That is what I am using. People will still be able to see your existing phone # on caller ID.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vonage.TimeToCall&hl=en

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

i read about this just now and it says it works with anyone who also has the app.. so that would limit who i could contact when on wifi only....

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Light ROM with GrooveIP

I'm not sure I understand your question . Are you looking to live without wifi or find solutions to solve bad wifi?
I had a lot of trouble with wifi calling until I did this:

1. [ROM] RemICS-JB 3.0.1 - The most stable, light and reasonably fast ROM I could get onto my phone
2. Set up Google Voice account (actually GApps but not relevant)
3. Install GrooveIP
4. Configure properly - The startup and answer on calls settings help integrate it seamlessly into your daily calling

Now you have inbound outbound calling, and with a decent connection it's very clean with rare hiccups
I trield Talkatone for a while and while at first it seemed to work out of the box better, I had issues with it over time.
So I went back to GIP and fiddled with settings after reading a lot. Because it works directly over Google Talk protocol and not GVoice, it is more stable and offers a better connection.


Hope this helps you get solid voice over wifi (Free
I did pay for Groove IP in the end.
Groove IP does not offer SMS built in like Talkatone does, so if you are SMSing all day as well then look at Talkatone. If quality of calls is paramount start with GIP. I use the GVoice app for SMS

emagin said:

Hope this helps you get solid voice over wifi (Free
I did pay for Groove IP in the end.
Groove IP does not offer SMS built in like Talkatone does, so if you are SMSing all day as well then look at Talkatone. If quality of calls is paramount start with GIP. I use the GVoice app for SMS

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

do those assign you another number or does it use ur regular cell number?

does the other person need the app?

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Sorry I did not mention this. Yes you use the GVoice as your main #
I converted to Grand Central (with Gizmo) several years ago before Google acquired it, so I'm very familiar with Voice and have been using it successfully for years.

I also use an Obi202 device ($75 for life) that lets my standard house phone make/receive calls on up to 4 GVoice numbers, or other VOIP services (like callcentric, etc.)
So my GVoice numbers ring multiple devices. One caveat is that GrooveIP on android interferes with the ringing on Obi device so I turn it off when I'm in office-desk mode. But I think this is off-topic

Jaws4God said:

do those assign you another number or does it use ur regular cell number?
does the other person need the app?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Im still in the testing phase... but MIUI ICS has the tmobile wifi calling working very well.
(Note it wasn't pre loaded so i did a full app and data backup of wifi calling via titanium backup and restored it after flashing new ROM)

* Update
Wifi calling still is sketchy.. didnt call last night.. just beeps and hangs up. But i have noticed it starts each time i connect to wifi unlike CM9 where i would have to click the app

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