[Excavator]

I just got my son a new BB 9700 and the $40 student plan. It advertises wifi calling as one of the features of this plan but I am not finding much info on it. The rep was not much help when I was asking about this either. I am not sure if an app needs to be downloaded or if it will work on the 9700. Any help would be great or if someone has a link it would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[cdn_tbird]

I just got my son a new BB 9700 and the $40 student plan. It advertises wifi calling as one of the features of this plan but I am not finding much info on it.

Rogers markets wifi calling (or UMA) under the name Talkspot. If you go onto their website and type in Talkspot in the search box it will come up with more info for you. Essentially, a compatible phone will automatically switch between wifi and cell without the call dropping. The call is supposedly billed according to where the call originated. For example, if your son starts a local call on wifi while he's walking out of his home and stays on the phone for an hour while he's out running errands, then that call would be free. However, the reverse is true and in that if he started a 1 hour call on the cell network just as he's walking through the door to his home, it would be billed as a 1 hour cell call. Not sure if this has changed recently, but that was how it was a year and a half ago when I looked into it.

Unfortunately, even though the 9700 has wifi capability, it can't be used for this. Whether that is due to Rogers simply not activating that capability on the 9700, or there are technical issues (such as battery drain) why they didn't is another discussion.

 

[JamesK]

Rogers markets wifi calling (or UMA) under the name Talkspot.

Here's some info on UMA. It appears there may be Android UMA support in the works too.

 

[outinthornhill]

Seems to me the BB is referring to making VOIP calls over the internet using a WIFI connection. A lot of smart phones make this possible now and, if your son is a college or university student, he will find WIFI all over campus (unless he goes to Lakehead u). VOIP from a smart phone will not be the same quality as using the carrier's voice service, but when $$ are an issue (what student doesn't have $$ issues these days?) then it may be an acceptable trade-off, especially considering the elimination of LD.

I'm not familiar with the APPs for VOIP on a smartphone but am sure you will get help with a Google search of that. If your son has a data package on his BB9700 I think he should be good to go but stand to be corrected if Rogers perhaps blocks any internet options on the student plan.

 

[JamesK]

^^^^
A free softphone for Android, iPhone and Windows can be found here, but you'll have to search for similar for the BB.

 

[99semaj]

The latest known firmware for the 9700 does in fact allow Rogers UMA service to work. It is available from a couple of different sites (Bell Canada, Vodafone Germany have both released it) but ironically Rogers does not yet post it. I'll PM you a link to more information. (It's on another forum site, and I don't think DHC rules allow posting it)

 

[cdn_tbird]

^^^^ Thanks for the catch 99semaj, it was late and I didn't check the other site before I responded. Just remember to delete the vendor.xml file before you upgrade the firmware. Rogers is famous for being slow to release the newer firmwares. I've been running non Rogers approved firmware versions on my BlackBerrys for years without any problems.