Reality Check: Making voice over Wi-Fi a reality

Wi-Fi is now an essential part of our smartphone and tablet-enabled lifestyle. Today, more than two-thirds of our monthly wireless data is consumed over Wi-Fi, and all signs are that this proportion will continue to grow. So while the traditional, cellular-centric view of the industry positions Wi-Fi as a support to the mobile network, there is an alternative and provocative perspective: we actually use the cellular network as in-fill during the time we spend away from our Wi-Fi connections, be they in the home, the office or our favourite coffee shop.
We simply can’t do without Wi-Fi and its delivery of the applications and services we need, conveniently, quickly and without impact on our data plans.
The ubiquity and utility of Wi-Fi notwithstanding, there is one part of the mobile experience where it has yet to be fully exploited: voice. It seems incredible that voice — the reason mobile phones were invented — remains largely restricted to the cellular network despite the Wi-Fi compatibility of all smartphones. Why is that, and will the recent announcement that Apple will support voice calling over Wi-Fi make a difference? Of course, people have been making voice calls over Wi-Fi for years using apps like Skype and now WhatsApp. But these services are separate from the phone number, creating needless complications for people who want to speak to one another. True integrated Wi-Fi calling should just work, allowing users to make and receive calls (or texts) no matter how they’re connected.
For many users, particularly those in areas of poor cellular service or traveling internationally, this would provide a huge coverage benefit. For the carriers it would seem to have equally obvious upsides. Less requirement to guarantee cellular coverage in every home or office. No need to supply clunky femtocells. Happy customers. The ability to monetize Wi-Fi (those minutes count against the plan) and less loss to over-the-top services. Few things in life are simple, however, and while these benefits are compelling, carriers have been slow to embrace Wi-Fi calling. Some may feel their network is central to their brand and be unwilling to publicly embrace Wi-Fi. For many others the key challenges have been complexity and the risk of quality problems arising from their lack of control over the Wi-Fi network. For users, meanwhile, setup and support can be challenging. Most may expect the same type of experience they receive with the cellular network and not realize that walking away from the Wi-Fi network will disconnect a call. This is the nub of the problem. Compared to the seamlessness of cellular use, the Wi-Fi experience for many users is raw and manual.
A remarkable 30% of users never connect their smartphone to their home Wi-Fi networks. Many users switch their Wi-Fi radios off — to save battery power or avoid connection problems when mobile — and forget to re-enable Wi-Fi at home. With a small zone of coverage, not to mention the often limited expertise of the home IT manager, Wi-Fi quality can also fluctuate wildly around the home. Public Wi-Fi takes this complexity to a new level — it can be hard to find, and even harder to log into. What operators need to provide for their users, then, is an experience in which the jagged transitions between cellular and public Wi-Fi (as well as domestic) are smoothed out.
They need to automate the movement of the user across these resources based on intelligent, dynamic policies and network discovery methods that prioritize quality of connection. Free from having to think about manually switching, the user can simply enjoy everything a high-quality Wi-Fi connectivity enables — including voice calling. The integration of Wi-Fi calling into iOS 8 suggests Apple feels it is becoming a mainstream need, particularly if it’s combined with a slick implementation to close the gap between the state of the tech and consumer readiness.
Certainly Apple can ensure seamless integration of Wi-Fi calling features into iOS. But the key problem with Wi-Fi calling remains the problems inherent in Wi-Fi itself, which lie in the gap between the network and the mobile device which a user is expected to resolve manually. Bridging that gap, with automation and intelligence, is the key to delivering Wi-Fi calling to the mainstream.
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