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The Technical Director for rural connectivity provider Wavemobile, Anthony Timson, has complained that the “biggest issue” they face today is the interaction devices roamed onto their network face with respect to the popular WiFi Calling service. Users who roam on to Wave’s network find that the big mobile operators (EE, O2, Vodafone and Three UK) seem to block it.
Just for some context, it’s important to recognise that Wavemobile are a company that specialises in deploying both private and public 2G/4G/5G mobile network services. For example, the provider can deliver community mobile networks to serve remote UK villages (here) and they’ve also worked to extend their cells on to buses in rural parts of the Swansea Bay area (here). Not to mention indoor connectivity solutions.
“Wavemobile is realistically the fifth UK (MNO). I am happy to be corrected on this, but we are a licenced [Radio Access Network] operator with our own MNC, Core, Numbering resources, and DIAMETER/MAP peering into the GSM cloud. We have engineered a practical solution to not-spot coverage that actually works (not perfectly, but that is for another post),” said Anthony.
The provider says they use British made cellXica Ltd M3Q radios for all operators, and can deliver coverage to a hamlet or small village in a “discrete rooftop package” that consumes less than 100 Watts. But the most annoying problem that they experience is the inability to get WiFi Calling to work with the big operators.
Anthony Timson said:
“Our biggest issue today is the interaction devices roamed onto our network face with WiFi Calling. For some reason known only to the big four, if a phone is roamed onto our network and you go inside a building to join WiFi Calling, you are blocked from using it.
This is made worse by the fact that our present solution for that is to deny access to customers affected by this, which means only Emergency Call access – but even denying access to our network still doesn’t allow WiFi Calling. This needs attention by the UK operators as we are lawfully allowed to transmit wherever Ofcom grants us a license. It is [the mobile operators] that [are] preventing use of WiFi calling, not us!
Our team loves solving coverage issues independently of any other operator control. We have had some support, but not where we need it which is on opening up the S6a/S8 or ePDG over cellular interfaces to support a better customer experience.”
ISPreview did ask the big mobile operators to respond to Wavemobile’s concern, but sadly none of them chose to comment. But we have since been informed that the provider may be making some progress, at least with respect to O2 (VMO2); an operator that Wave has worked with a few times before. Time will tell.