Sprint VoLTE Discussion Thread Redux

[clbowens]

I've used VoLTE a few times now in the basement of my house, with either a weak B41, B25 or B26 signal.  And each time the call quality was good.  Clear call, no problem hearing the person on the other line and no problem of them hearing me.

I even sometimes drop to 3G in the basement that's how weak the LTE signal can get down there.

Edited October 22, 2018 by clbowens

[jakeuten]

Can anybody confirm or deny cross carrier HD Voice with AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon?

[Tengen31]

Can anybody confirm or deny cross carrier HD Voice with AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon?

I know att and VZW do.T-Mobile I don't see why they shouldn't, just don't know if they do. Once Sprint has it for all phones and the whole network I could see TMO and Sprint doing it.

 

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[clbowens]

Does anyone know if there was any tower work (antennas or anything) that had to be done to get VoLTE up and running?  Or was it all hardware/software work in each base station?

[RAvirani]

37 minutes ago, clbowens said:

Does anyone know if there was any tower work (antennas or anything) that had to be done to get VoLTE up and running?  Or was it all hardware/software work in each base station?

It’s all backend work. 

[floorguy]

So a thought I am going to try out the next week or so....

With this heavy roaming agreement with Tmo, I am finding I kick to roaming in "spotty" sprint areas -112 or worse (ill pay closer attention) 
 

So I asked my rep about if the Volte should just transfer over (like it would from 41 to 25 or 26, and back) without losing signal, as it seems to do with wifi....

He said it should be fine..

I am in an area that has some sprint holes... and so i am going to see if the tmo roaming fixes it... 

[Tengen31]

So a thought I am going to try out the next week or so....

With this heavy roaming agreement with Tmo, I am finding I kick to roaming in "spotty" sprint areas -112 or worse (ill pay closer attention) 
 
So I asked my rep about if the Volte should just transfer over (like it would from 41 to 25 or 26, and back) without losing signal, as it seems to do with wifi....

He said it should be fine..

I am in an area that has some sprint holes... and so i am going to see if the tmo roaming fixes it... 

As long as your Phone is on LTE Volte will stay connected doesn't matter which band your on. It's only when you lose LTE that the call will drop

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[burnout8488]

10 hours ago, Tengen31 said:

As long as your Phone is on LTE Volte will stay connected doesn't matter which band your on. It's only when you lose LTE that the call will drop

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Are VoLTE handoffs between different networks considered a soft handoff, though? 

[RAvirani]

18 minutes ago, burnout8488 said:

Are VoLTE handoffs between different networks considered a soft handoff, though? 

It depends. It can be but I’m not 100% sure on how Sprint is managing it.

[lilotimz]

The configuration I believe they're undertaking is LTE RAN sharing using MOCN. 

The short summary of that would be that the LTE RAN hardware on roaming partners will broadcast a lower priority PLM-NID which Sprint devices will lock onto when a set of parameters are met. Think back to like the Clearwire B41 network in terms of different PLM-NID.

Depending on how they configure it, the LTE hardware doesn't matter in this case. What matters is how the packets are routed and with LTE RAN sharing configurations, instead of the packets going through the t-mobile network then through to Sprint, it goes directly to Sprint from the cell site. 

 

[Bob Newhart]

37 minutes ago, lilotimz said:

The configuration I believe they're undertaking is LTE RAN sharing using MOCN. 

The short summary of that would be that the LTE RAN hardware on roaming partners will broadcast a lower priority PLM-NID which Sprint devices will lock onto when a set of parameters are met. Think back to like the Clearwire B41 network in terms of different PLM-NID.

Depending on how they configure it, the LTE hardware doesn't matter in this case. What matters is how the packets are routed and with LTE RAN sharing configurations, instead of the packets going through the t-mobile network then through to Sprint, it goes directly to Sprint from the cell site. 

 

Have you heard that VoLTE roaming will be in effect? I have heard it will not be.

Non-voice roaming data goes via the TMO-S gateways. When you roam from Sprint towers to T-Mobile towers, the device IP address changes, latency goes up, as all data goes via Sprint's gateways, similar to how international roaming works.

[Handyman]

I've experienced mixed results with CallingPlus on my S9+.  Much of it is that the person on the other end "loses me" quite often, even though I might hear them fine.  Sometimes, driving through the same area doesn't necessarily repeat the bad experience.  One time the call is good, the other time it breaks up.

We do live a bit out in the country and calls do seem better while connected to WiFi, a MagicBox, or in the city.  It's in the country that we have issues (i.e., no cell tower within a mile of the location).

Sprint has been bolstering its network with small cells (basically, magic boxes on light poles) in our area, but the problem with that is that they only do this in the city, not out in the country were continuity sites are badly needed.

[imex99]

I've experienced mixed results with CallingPlus on my S9+.  Much of it is that the person on the other end "loses me" quite often, even though I might hear them fine.  Sometimes, driving through the same area doesn't necessarily repeat the bad experience.  One time the call is good, the other time it breaks up.
We do live a bit out in the country and calls do seem better while connected to WiFi, a MagicBox, or in the city.  It's in the country that we have issues (i.e., no cell tower within a mile of the location).
Sprint has been bolstering its network with small cells (basically, magic boxes on light poles) in our area, but the problem with that is that they only do this in the city, not out in the country were continuity sites are badly needed.

Yes, VOLTE should be much better and has qos priority on the network.

Calling plus is horrible with all phones.... Very service that should have never been rolled out, IMHO!

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[shannonbrian]

On 10/26/2018 at 10:28 AM, imex99 said:

Yes, VOLTE should be much better and has qos priority on the network.

Calling plus is horrible with all phones.... Very service that should have never been rolled out, IMHO!

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
 

I used volte in Philly and Baltimore it works very very good. Sound way better then hd voice in my opinion.  Bad part I'm in Delaware market so I'm in between areas . Kind of tease .

[imex99]

Twitter response

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[Handyman]

On 10/27/2018 at 2:57 PM, shannonbrian said:

I used volte in Philly and Baltimore it works very very good. Sound way better then hd voice in my opinion.  Bad part I'm in Delaware market so I'm in between areas . Kind of tease .

How does it sound over WiFi?

[shannonbrian]

7 hours ago, Handyman said:

How does it sound over WiFi?

Not tried it

[Flompholph]

Is there a list of active volte markets? I know Pittsburgh, Chicago, Indy, Miami, and Nashville also have VoLTE live or at least the symbol shows up in those markets for me.

[Shade00]

Posters on Reddit are suggesting that due to Sprint's implementation of VoLTE (not sure of the technical details), VoLTE will not be available on pre-2017 devices. I would think the iPhones at least would share the same software implementation of VoLTE so I'm having a hard time understanding why an iPhone 7 wouldn't be as capable as an iPhone 8 of VoLTE. I'm certainly hoping it will be available on the 7 - that's what my wife is using on Sprint. Also anxiously awaiting the ability for her to roam on T-Mo on the 7.

[MacinJosh]

16 minutes ago, Shade00 said:

Posters on Reddit are suggesting that due to Sprint's implementation of VoLTE (not sure of the technical details), VoLTE will not be available on pre-2017 devices. I would think the iPhones at least would share the same software implementation of VoLTE so I'm having a hard time understanding why an iPhone 7 wouldn't be as capable as an iPhone 8 of VoLTE. I'm certainly hoping it will be available on the 7 - that's what my wife is using on Sprint. Also anxiously awaiting the ability for her to roam on T-Mo on the 7.

The problem you have is software implementation on the network side is different than device. Too many different factors to consider. Maybe Sprint feels that all iPhone's pre-2017 wouldn't benefit from VoLTE due to antennas, or maybe too much of a resource drag on the network side. Unfortunately Sprint hasn't given any reasons publicly why they aren't allowing the 7/Plus and the 6S/Plus. They are still very capable devices that have a decent lifespan left for them. As for my friends 6S though. There is seriously something wrong with it. I'm probably moving her to my iPhone X this weekend. Her phone shut down yesterday mid day with 10% left on the battery. It's used as a business device so we have to keep it working properly.

[Shade00]

1 minute ago, MacinJosh said:

The problem you have is software implementation on the network side is different than device. Too many different factors to consider. Maybe Sprint feels that all iPhone's pre-2017 wouldn't benefit from VoLTE due to antennas, or maybe too much of a resource drag on the network side. Unfortunately Sprint hasn't given any reasons publicly why they aren't allowing the 7/Plus and the 6S/Plus. They are still very capable devices that have a decent lifespan left for them. As for my friends 6S though. There is seriously something wrong with it. I'm probably moving her to my iPhone X this weekend. Her phone shut down yesterday mid day with 10% left on the battery. It's used as a business device so we have to keep it working properly.

Thanks for the response. The 7/Plus are still great phones, but I guess I'll have to upgrade her to an 8... sigh. 

Has your friend gotten a new battery from Apple yet? They're replacing batteries for $29 until the end of the year. Sounds like a battery issue to me. 

[MacinJosh]

13 minutes ago, Shade00 said:

Thanks for the response. The 7/Plus are still great phones, but I guess I'll have to upgrade her to an 8... sigh. 

Has your friend gotten a new battery from Apple yet? They're replacing batteries for $29 until the end of the year. Sounds like a battery issue to me. 

Yep. Got the new battery on both of her 6S' earlier this year. The one phone is shot.

[lilotimz]

6 hours ago, Flompholph said:

Is there a list of active volte markets? I know Pittsburgh, Chicago, Indy, Miami, and Nashville also have VoLTE live or at least the symbol shows up in those markets for me.

But does the call go through in those markets (outside chicago, pittsburgh, indy)?

[Flompholph]

1 hour ago, lilotimz said:

But does the call go through in those markets (outside chicago, pittsburgh, indy)?

I didn't try a call in those markets. A call does goes through in Columbus OH though which was not on the soft launch list.  The icon disappers if not in a supported city. There is no VoLTE icon in the phone app to tell if it is 1x or a true VoLTE. There is just the one icon on the top right.

[lilotimz]

9 minutes ago, Flompholph said:

I didn't try a call in those markets. A call does goes through in Columbus OH though which was not on the soft launch list.  The icon disappers if not in a supported city. There is no VoLTE icon in the phone app to tell if it is 1x or a true VoLTE. There is just the one icon on the top right.

Columbus, OH is VoLTE launched among a lot of other markets currently not announced.