Wifi calling not working outside of NL

Hello @ChaosMonkey, how wonderful that you are in South Africa, hope you like it there! Good of you to contact me about this, I would be happy to give you more clarification! 

With Bellen over WiFi (Voice over WiFi or VoWifi) you use the WiFi connection to make calls. Super convenient when, for example, there is no mobile network available indoors. This occurs for example in well-insulated houses. WiFi calling then ensures better accessibility and a more stable connection. WiFi calling can be done with any WiFi network with a fixed Internet connection.

It is true that you cannot use WiFi calling (VoWifi) while abroad. This is only possible in the Netherlands. Hence you cannot use it abroad either, sorry! 

If you have any other questions, feel free to let us know! 

@ChaosMonkey Sorry it's not possible for now! Perhaps it will be possible in the future, but for now nothing is known about this. Once this becomes available, it will be communicated extensively!

Kind regards, 
Pharwin

This is not so easy to implement. With vowifi you bypass local mobile networks.  Roaming charges are based on cdr' (call detail records) from the roaming providers. When you call within that country,  a hotel/taxi etc. the local roaming provider does see that as a national call and handles that completly,  the speech does not leave the country.

When you use vowifi, the breakout from internet to the voice network is always at the home country, with Odido that is in the Netherlands.  When a call is made for example in Japan to a Taxi company in Japan, the call will travel with vowifi first to the Netherlands and than back to the Japanese number. Next to the setup delay and quality problems, what charge should be asked? Most logic is an outgoing international call from NL to Japan, but that is more extensive and at least different than when the call is handles locally.

Anyway,  it is intresting to learn, can you share the webpage where your othern provider,  who does allowed vowifi while roaming, explains these charging differences?

Hi @eric , Vodacom South-Africa, does not charge me any international rates if I use VoWifi. So let’s say I am in Germany, I have Wifi, and I call a South-African number. Then I will be charged “Local” rates as if I was physically in South-Africa making the call. If I called a number in Germany, then only would I be charged an international rate. So the VoWifi in this case allows me to for a lack of a better sense, to use a VPN to the origin country if I am calling numbers from that country. See https://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/terms/vodacom-wi-fi-calling

So given that Vodacom South-Africa has enabled this for a couple of years, I had made the incorrect assumption thinking maybe Odido had supported this. Since it has been a feature I have been using since 2019.

As for your Japan to NL scenario. If I call people in different parts of the globe with Whats app, there is that delay and it’s perfectly normal. But in that case it could be double the delay, or the call should then not be using VoWifi.

Ok, but if your phone drops the wifi connection, the call to South Africa is suddenly an international call from the German roaming operator to South Africa while you thought it was only a local charge.. so, explaining this to all customers is not done by Dutch Operators. It is just not working while abroad. 

That is true, but that is why it’s handy to use airplane mode. So yes there is that risk, but it is explained. Air plane mode is also a way around this risk.

I have my phone in air plane mode at home either way, it saves battery if you have week signal. What operators also don’t explain is that if you have very bad signal your phone will consume more battery as it will boost it’s signal output in order to communicate with the tower in order to maintain a connection.

Well this has been an expensive lesson.

1. I could not reach the chat support because of some odd geo region issues while abroad. I had to use a vpn to get the chat support to work.
2. I was asked by support to try make a test call on the WiFi, which failed and shows it only lasted 2 seconds, so the call was placed but never connected.
3. I am now paying additional costs for making a test call, as I was instructed to do.
4. If the support had just told me WiFi calling does not work outside of the EU I could have avoided all of this.
5. I am rather disappointed with the supports’ reaction to my additional costs which I feel could have been avoided.

I will take this as a learning experience and if I get asked to test anything in the future I will ask first if there is a chance I will pay additional costs.