Operator sangat mempromosikan VoWiFi Adakah "membuat panggilan suara menggunakan WiFi" permintaan palsu?

Seawal 2022, China Telecom mempromosikan teknologi komunikasi yang dipanggil VoWiFi. Pada masa itu, China Telecom mengeluarkan dokumen yang mengatakan bahawa Shanghai Telecom berjaya membuka panggilan VoWiFi pertama dengan keupayaan pengesanan hujung ke hujung.

Walau bagaimanapun, walaupun pada hari ini pada tahun 2024, VoWiFi masih merupakan konsep yang sangat asing bagi kebanyakan orang. Tiga pengendali domestik utama belum membuka sepenuhnya fungsi ini kepada majoriti pengguna.

Walau bagaimanapun, baru-baru ini, Xiaolei jelas merasakan bahawa bar kemajuan pelaksanaan VoWiFi semakin pantas. Di satu pihak, pengendali domestik secara rahsia menguji dan menjemput beberapa pengguna untuk mengambil bahagian sebaliknya, jenama telefon mudah alih seperti Apple dan Xiaomi juga sedang menguji fungsi VoWiFi secara dalaman. Secara teorinya, selagi pengendali dan pengeluar terminal giat mempromosikannya, ia tidak lagi sukar bagi pengguna biasa untuk menggunakan VoWiFi. . Secara ringkasnya, VoWiFi ialah singkatan Voice over WiFi, yang diterjemahkan kepada "menggunakan WiFi untuk membawa suara."

Melihat ini, saya percaya ramai orang akan memikirkan VoLTE dan VoNR. VoLTE ialah teknologi dalam era 4G Ia secara langsung menggunakan rangkaian 4G untuk membawa perkhidmatan suara, dengan itu mengelakkan rasa malu kerana terpaksa menurunkan taraf kepada rangkaian 3G untuk membuat dan menerima panggilan pada telefon mudah alih 4G.

VoNR boleh dianggap sebagai versi VoLTE yang dinaik taraf dalam era 5G, dan perkhidmatan suara menjadi rangkaian 5G. Faedah langsung yang diberikan oleh VoLTE dan VoNR kepada pengguna ialah apabila membuat dan menerima panggilan suara, rangkaian yang digunakan tidak akan diputuskan, dan pada masa yang sama, menghantar dan menerima mesej teks tidak akan terjejas Senario klasik: seseorang yang sedang bermain permainan tidak akan terjejas oleh panggilan terpaksa pergi ke luar talian.

Senario yang sepadan dengan VoWiFi sebenarnya berbeza Rangkaian yang membawa suara telah berubah daripada 4G dan 5G kepada WiFi, iaitu daripada stesen pangkalan komunikasi mudah alih kepada rangkaian tanpa wayar yang dikembangkan daripada jalur lebar berwayar. Masalah yang ingin diselesaikan adalah sangat jelas - kawasan isyarat lemah yang tidak diliputi oleh stesen pangkalan.

(Sumber foto: Huawei)

Sesetengah orang mungkin berkata: Sudah 2024, adakah masih terdapat situasi isyarat lemah? Daripada pengalaman harian peribadi Xiao Lei, ia benar-benar wujud.

Xiao Lei, yang terletak di Guangzhou, mempunyai pengalaman menyewa rumah di perkampungan bandar Ketumpatan bangunan di kampung bandar sangat tinggi, dan "bangunan berjabat tangan" yang menghalang langit dan matahari telah menyekat isyarat stesen pangkalan dengan serius. Dan pada waktu malam, apabila penyewa pulang ke rumah satu demi satu, bilangan pengguna stesen pangkalan berhampiran perkampungan bandar meroket, dan kesesakan tidak lama lagi berlaku. . Xiaolei juga membangunkan tabiat menyambung ke WiFi terlebih dahulu sebelum membayar di restoran. Jika tidak, agak memalukan untuk melihat kod QR dan antara muka pembayaran mudah alih yang lain di hadapan kaunter pembayaran.

Berbanding dengan stesen pangkalan, rangkaian WiFi yang disediakan di bangunan tetap selalunya berdasarkan jalur lebar berwayar Mereka mempunyai lebih banyak kelebihan berbanding rangkaian mudah alih dari segi kos dan kestabilan rangkaian. VoWiFi, yang menggunakan sepenuhnya rangkaian WiFi, boleh menyingkirkan kekangan stesen pangkalan dan secara langsung memberikan pengguna perkhidmatan panggilan suara berkualiti tinggi.

Selepas ujian yang lama, ia akhirnya di sini?

Sebenarnya VoWiFi bukanlah teknologi baharu yang hanya muncul sejak beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini. Seawal 2014, apabila Apple melancarkan iPhone 6, ia mempromosikan "fungsi panggilan WiFi." Walau bagaimanapun, pada masa itu, hanya pengendali luar negara seperti Verizon menyokong ciri ini.

Di China, kemajuan VoWiFi agak perlahan. Pada tahun 2020, Zhejiang Mobile melancarkan "Pembantu Panggilan WiFi", yang membolehkan pengguna mengalami fungsi panggilan rangkaian WiFi selepas mengaktifkannya dalam apl mudah alih. Walau bagaimanapun, fungsi ini masih mempunyai beberapa had, termasuk keperluan untuk memuat turun Apl khas, ia hanya boleh dihidupkan dalam Apl, dan ia mesti digunakan dalam mod kapal terbang atau kad dikeluarkan, dsb. Sudah tentu, pembantu panggilan WiFi boleh digunakan di luar negara dan tidak mengenakan bayaran perayauan, yang telah menunjukkan beberapa kelebihan.

Namun, selepas memasuki era 5G, kemajuan pelaksanaan VoWiFi telah dipercepatkan secara beransur-ansur. Selepas China Telecom mengumumkan pelancaran panggilan VoWiFi pada 2022, China Telecom melancarkan perintis VoWiFi di Wilayah Guangdong pada 2023. Pengguna telekomunikasi di empat bandar Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan dan Foshan boleh mengalami perkhidmatan ini secara langsung, sudah tentu, dengan syarat telefon mudah alih menyokongnya. Pada awal tahun ini, China Telecom mengumumkan bahawa ia telah bekerjasama dengan Air China untuk menyiapkan projek VoWiFi platform rangkaian dalam penerbangan, yang membolehkan pengguna membuat dan menerima panggilan melalui WiFi dalam penerbangan, yang diperoleh berdasarkan rangkaian satelit.

(Sumber foto: Telekom)

However, China Telecom’s VoWiFi has been in a state of small-scale testing and only supports some Android models and does not yet support iPhone. However, in the recently updated iOS 18 Beta 4, the telecom VoWiFi switch has appeared. Now, after a long period of testing, China Telecom is ready to fully open VoWiFi services.

(Source: Weibo)

In addition, some netizens recently discovered that China Unicom has quietly launched a "Telephone" applet in the official App, with the introduction of "WiFi Calling". The probability is the VoWiFi function. However, compared to China Telecom, China Unicom has made much less progress in VoWiFi in recent years. At MWC Shanghai in 2016, China Unicom, which was participating in the exhibition, mentioned VoWiFi, but nothing was said about it soon.

Now, China Unicom is testing the WiFi calling function in the App. Xiao Lei speculates that it wants to imitate the original mobile "WiFi Calling Assistant" to promote VoWiFi testing. This approach allows China Unicom to maintain greater control and limit it to its own official App.

(Photo source: China Unicom App)

What makes people confused is that China Mobile, the strongest among the three operators, has rarely heard news related to VoWiFi in recent years. . Except for Zhejiang Mobile's "WiFi Call Assistant" experiment we mentioned at the beginning, China Mobile has not made any big moves in the VoWiFi field.

Of course, this is not difficult to understand. Relatively speaking, China Mobile, which has a lot of money, has done a better job in signal coverage. It has fewer signal dead spots than the other two operators, so its willingness to promote VoWiFi is naturally not that strong. . By comparison, in the 4G era, in order to get rid of the burden of 3G, China Mobile spared no effort in promoting VoLTE, and its popularity far exceeded that of China Unicom and China Telecom.

In general, China Telecom has made the greatest efforts in implementing VoWiFi services, and it is expected to be popularized on mainstream smartphones soon; China Unicom’s testing of VoWiFi is still in its infancy, and it is expected that only a small number of users will It can be experienced; China Mobile has little interest in VoWiFI for the time being, and mobile users will not be able to use it for the time being.

How do ordinary users use VoWiFi?

We have already mentioned the two most basic conditions before, that is, both the operator side and the mobile phone side support VoWiFi. The mobile phone support is easy to understand, the hardware itself supports VoWiFI technology, and the system software is matched.

Since VoWiFI is not an emerging technology, most smartphones on the market currently support it, including flagship phones like Xiaomi 14 Pro and mid-to-low-end products like Redmi Note8 Pro. Even if a small number of mobile phones do not support VoWiFi for the time being, it is mainly because the manufacturers have not yet opened it in the system. This problem can be solved through subsequent OTA. As for the iPhone, all models in the past 10 years support VoWiFI on hardware, but the software strictly follows the footsteps of operators. This year, only China Telecom is expected to use it.

But in actual use, there is another question that many people have not paid attention to: under what circumstances will VoWiFI be triggered? This problem does not exist when using VoLTE and VoNR functions. As long as the user turns them on and the base station supports them, they can use them whenever they want. But VoWiFi is actually not like this. First of all, it must meet the prerequisite for connecting to a WiFi network. If you are walking on the road or sitting in the subway with your mobile phone, this condition cannot be met.

Secondly, even if you are connected to a WiFi network, VoWiFi may not be triggered. According to feedback from some netizens, VoWiFi must be triggered when the mobile communication signal is poor. In other words, if the mobile phone can make calls using the base station, the system will not actively turn on VoWiFi; if the signal is poor and WiFi is connected at the same time, the system will turn on VoWiFi. In other words, users themselves do not have the right to choose the VoWiFi switch. In order to try out the VoWiFi function, some users even directly set their mobile phones to airplane mode, completely shutting down the mobile signal.

(Picture source: C114 Forum @Benson1212)

If we want to understand the logic of VoWiFi, we have to start from the operator’s perspective. Unlike their own base stations, operators have no control over the WiFi networks used by users. Operators need to build an Internet-based call network by themselves, and the process may also involve bandwidth fees for other operators. Therefore, at present, operators' attitude towards VoWiFi is still a bit like not using it as much as possible. It is always a set of alternatives.

From a user perspective, voice calls provided by operators have always been marginalized. Nowadays, when most people buy account card packages, their priority is the data price, and few people care about the voice resources included in the package. At the same time, IM applications such as WeChat and QQ have become very popular, and they can directly provide free voice and even video call services.

Most users are still unable to completely leave traditional phone services. They are mainly constrained by phone notifications from services such as takeout and express delivery. Just imagine, if apps like Meituan and Ele.me can also obtain voice communication licenses, then the operator's voice service market will be further compressed.

Of course, no matter what, for most people today, voice calls are still an indispensable part of daily life. The emergence and popularity of VoWiFi has a positive effect on improving the quality of users' voice calls. In the future, when we are in a blind spot where we cannot make calls and face intermittent and poor call quality, we can still use WiFi networks as an alternative to make calls to get a better user experience. For operators, the popularity of VoWiFi can alleviate the cost of base station construction to a certain extent. The full implementation of VoWiFi is a win-win situation for users and operators.

In the first half of 2024, the technology world is turbulent.

Large models are accelerating, AI mobile phones, AI PCs, AI home appliances, AI search, AI e-commerce...AI applications are emerging in endlessly;

Vision Pro is on sale and launched in the Chinese market, setting off another wave of XR space computing;

HarmonyOS NEXT Officially released, the mobile OS ecology has changed;

Cars have fully entered the "second half", and intelligence has become a top priority;

E-commerce competition is becoming increasingly fierce, with lower prices and higher services;

The wave of going overseas is surging, and Chinese brands are embarking on the journey of globalization ;

...

In July, Lei Technology·Mid-year review topic is online, summarizing the brands, technologies and products worth recording in the first half of 2024 in the technology industry, recording the past and looking forward to the future, so stay tuned.

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