@butwhynot- the availability of wifi calling is actually never affected by roaming, only by IP address, because some networks geo-block non-domestic IP addresses.
For example, if I go to the Coastguard pub near Dover, there's a strong signal from French networks but almost no signal from Three UK. My iPhone successfully connects via the pub's wifi network to Three UK's wifi calling, even though I'm roaming on a French network and Three UK geo-blocks wifi calling outside the UK. It works because the pub's wifi has a UK IP address and wifi calling is agnostic to whether or not I'm roaming.
Conversely if I connected to a pub's wifi in Blacklion (Co Cavan) while connected to a nearby Three UK mast in Belcoo (Co Fermanagh), then wifi calling wouldn't work because the pub would have an Irish IP address, not a UK IP address, and Three UK blocks non-UK IP addresses. I haven't tried this, but I know from other experience that this is what would happen.
@NFH The team has gotten back to advise that we have not followed the same process as Three UK. Voice over Wi-Fi calls is not blocked by IP. We do not support roaming Wi-Fi calling. A user's device must be in the ROI physically to avail of this service.
Thanks @Three_Shane1, but two of your statements are contradictory:
"Voice over Wi-Fi calls is not blocked by IP."
"A user's device must be in the ROI physically to avail of this service."
In a typical wifi calling scenario, the user's device will often be out of mobile coverage, i.e. neither on Three Ireland's network nor roaming, but instead connected to wifi. Therefore how will Three determine the location of the device if not by IP address? And if Three does not block non-Irish IP addresses, how else will Three prevent a device from using wifi calling outside Ireland?
@NFH I've passed on your follow-up questions to the team & they have come back with the following:
How will Three determine the location of the device if not by IP address? We determine location this is done by a combination of Cellular, GPS and in certain devices GNSS location.
how else will Three prevent a device from using wifi calling outside Ireland? While we have enabled Wi-Fi calling for use in the ROI, this hasn't been enabled while roaming. While this feature is not currently available it may be in the future but for the moment we don't offer it.
Roaming means that the device is connected to a foreign mobile network. It does not mean that the device is simply abroad. When a device is using wifi calling, it usually cannot roam because there's no mobile signal.
Take the example of using wifi calling deep underground in a Tube station in London. There’s plenty of wifi but no mobile or GPS signal. The phone isn’t roaming because there’s no mobile signal. There’s no GPS in order to detect the location, and in any case the user can choose in privacy settings whether to allow apps or services to access the device’s location. In iOS for example, the user can specifically deny permission to wifi calling to access the device’s location. Given that Three Ireland will not be geo-blocking non-Irish IP addresses, will wifi calling work in this Tube station scenario? If it won’t work, how would Three determine that the device is outside Ireland?
@NFH I've sent your question to the team & they have advised of the following while you're in Ireland we use the above ways to determine your location but once you leave Ireland Wi-Fi calling isn't available as it's not a service we have provisioned it to be included as part of the Wi-Fi calling service.
@Three_Shane1Thanks, but I still don't understand. In my example scenario, how will Three determine that the device is outside Ireland if the device is deep underground with no mobile signal (and consequently no roaming), no GPS signal and with location services disabled for wifi calling? With no way for Three to determine the device's location (other than IP address which you say will not be used), how will Three prevent wifi calling from working?
