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iOS 8.3 expands iPhone WiFi Calls to Sprint in the U.S., EE in the U.K.

In addition to adding a slew of more diverse Emojis and several bug fixes, iOS 8.3 has expanded the iPhone’s WiFi calling feature to a pair of new carriers: Sprint in the United States and EE in the United Kingdom. WiFi calling allows a user to make calls over a WiFi network instead of over their standard cellular network. This feature comes in handy for users who live in homes or areas with poor cellular service or for those traveling abroad. WiFi calling first launched on the iPhone with T-Mobile last year in the U.S. WiFi calling requires newer iPhone models, ranging from the iPhone 5c to the iPhone 6 Plus. Users on supported carriers can activate WiFi calling via the Settings panel shown above. Sprint says international WiFi calling is free when calling from 200 different countries to a U.S., U.S. Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico number.

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Comments

  1. Hemag Inc. (@HemagInc) - 9 years ago

    Where do you access that I don’t see it anywhere in my Sprint iPhone 6?

    • Benjamin Kindle - 9 years ago

      It may not show up immediately, but you should get it soon. from the sprint newsroom: ” Requires iOS 8.3 and update to carrier settings. Carrier settings will update for customers over the course of a few days.”

    • crichton007 - 9 years ago

      After upgrading to iOS 8.3 I went to Settings –> General –> About and I was asked if I wanted to install updated carrier settings.

  2. samuelsnay - 9 years ago

    I’m on Sprint and I’m not finding this setting under Settings>Phone. Am I looking in the wrong place?

    • samuelsnay - 9 years ago

      Should mention I’m on iPhone 6 Plus.

      • Steven Badeau - 9 years ago

        you need to update the IOS software to the 8.3, once you do, you will get an “update carrier settings”, do those, then once you are done that, go to settings; phone; wifi calling. it might take a few days.

    • crichton007 - 9 years ago

      After upgrading to iOS 8.3 I went to Settings –> General –> About and I was asked if I wanted to install updated carrier settings. After updating I was able to turn this feature on.

  3. Dafty Punk - 9 years ago

    God forbid the carriers upgrade towers to provide better service…. Why bother when they can charge users for using their own internet service to make calls instead!

    This Wifi calling already existed, it is called FaceTime.

    • vpndev - 9 years ago

      FaceTime Audio is cool (I use it a lot to England) but it does require iPhone/iPad/etc at the other end. Wi-Fi calling can go to POTS.

  4. tomtubbs - 9 years ago

    Pretty useful feature – Vonage’s app + Three Network’s unlimited data works well in the UK, when you want to make an expensive call inexpensive/free. Wonder if this will eventually roll out to other networks or i’ll be like Visual Voicemail which hasn’t made it out of O2/EE. It’s been 8 years…

    • crichton007 - 9 years ago

      They still don’t support Visual Voicemail? Wow, and here I was bothered it took Cricket a few months to get that up and running after they started selling the iPhone.

      • Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 9 years ago

        Three have little interest in supporting iOS features. We’ll never get visual voicemail and there’s zero chance of wi-fi calling. I stick with them simply because they have unlimited data and roaming is free with them in many countries. Aside from that though, their coverage is hopeless if you don’t live in a city, and their 4G rollout is pathologically slow. (and getting slower – their list of places which would go 4G last year mysteriously vanished from their web site late last year when it was clear they were miles behind schedule)

  5. crichton007 - 9 years ago

    Thanks for this article. I haven’t seen this anywhere else and this is pretty useful.

  6. DS Rivers - 9 years ago

    Down side is if you enable WI-Fi calling, it disables the ability to make and receive calls on other Apple devices. I like not having to run to answer my phone in another room when using my iMac.

  7. F Martin (@feramabo) - 9 years ago

    When is coming to AT&T?

  8. Dan (@danmdan) - 9 years ago

    No sign of this in my UK EE iPhone 5C now on iOS 8.3 – where is it supposed to be ? Please be more specific with this sort of info and say EXACTLY where a new setting is.

    e.g. you should say it is in — Settings/Phone/??? or wherever it actually is to be found.

    • Sky Willmott - 9 years ago

      For EE in UK, go to Settings -> Phone -> Wi-Fi Calls and choose to ‘Allow Wi-Fi Calls’… I also also had to text ‘wifi calling’ to 150 to activate it… Apparently EE are only activating 100,000 users/day at the moment…. Once activated, you will see the word ‘WiFiCall’ appear in the status bar just to the right of your mobile signal strength indicator and network name ‘EE’ and to the left of your WiFi signal indicator. Working well here where my office has very poor mobile reception, but good WiFi…

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