Starlink and Wi-Fi Calling

[Ken E.]

I'm a new Starlink user and I'm wondering if anyone is using Wi-Fi Calling with it. I have Verizon which supports it and my Samsung 5g phone gives me Wi-Fi calling as an option. I've read user reviews of it, saying that it works but that it isnt stable and drops calls. I'm looking to retire my Iridium sat phone which works fine but is expensive to use.

 

[psneeld]

I'm a new Starlink user and I'm wondering if anyone is using Wi-Fi Calling with it. I have Verizon which supports it and my Samsung 5g phone gives me Wi-Fi calling as an option. I've read user reviews of it, saying that it works but that it isnt stable and drops calls. I'm looking to retire my Iridium sat phone which works fine but is expensive to use.

From what I can tell, it is as stable as the signal... which can drop off and on.

It doesn't seem to affect things like streaming with buffering.... but I can see where it has dead time much like driving through a remote area with spotty cell coverage....just not as bad as it's back [pretty quickly unless you have major obstruction to the sky.

 

[tiltrider1]

I used WiFi calling with starlink this summer. While anchored a few miles from Cape Caution I had a lengthy phone call with my brother. I didn’t notice any difference between a WiFi call and a standard cellular call. I never experienced any drops.

 

[Pocoron]

Worked great for me this past summer in locations without any cell coverage.

 

[SteveK]

My phone switches between wifi and cell provider favouring cell provider seemlessly. Have not had andropped or skipping connections. It works.

 

[tcoop]

We did SE Alaska via the inside this summer. The Wi-Fi calling with Starlink worked very well. Many places there was no cell coverage or VHF but the Starlink worked. We were using iPhones and ATT when there was coverage. My wife talked to her mother at least once a day. Incoming calls had no issues as well.

When in a small town we would forget and try to get data or make a call with no success. So we had to wait until we went back to the boat.

I was also pleased that we had no roaming charges in Canada. ATT said that would be the case but my trust in phone companies went away years ago.

 

[Don L]

I'm a new Starlink user and I'm wondering if anyone is using Wi-Fi Calling with it. I have Verizon which supports it and my Samsung 5g phone gives me Wi-Fi calling as an option. I've read user reviews of it, saying that it works but that it isnt stable and drops calls. I'm looking to retire my Iridium sat phone which works fine but is expensive to use.

I did it earlier this year from the Bahamas and it worked fine. I have a Metro prepaid cell plan that doesn't even work in Bahamas

 

[dannc]

We have not used WiFi calling over StarLink but we are in video conference calls all day long without problems. When there are problems, it is usually with the person in a conference room that has the connection/sound issue.

Later,
Dan

 

[O C Diver]

Wifi calling over Starlink was outstanding this summer. Spent 18 days without connecting to a cell tower at Isle Royale national park. The only hiccup for my Samsung phone on Verizon is that it wants to switch to marginal tower reception. Going into the menu and selecting Wifi as you preference solved the problem.

Ted

 

[DBG8492]

I use Starlink working from my boat.

I have found that for Teams meetings, it works very well - even if there are 40+ people in there, all of them using video.

However, our company phone system is Ring Central - which is a Cloud-based VOIP system. It's not very good with that. There's a lot of lag between when I speak and when the person on the other end can hear me.

I admit that I haven't tried it for Wi-Fi calling from my cell phone yet - been sort of ambivalent about even trying it given the way it works with Ring Central. But perhaps I will try and see when I call my kids later this week.

 

[twistedtree]

I use it extensively and it works well - mostly. In the northeast, for whatever reason, wifi calling in ATT is not very reliable. But I don’t think that has anything to do with Starlink because it was marginal with DSL and other services before that. Interestingly, on the west coast it worked perfectly, so I think it’s entirely an ATT issue on the east cost. Regardless, Inhave no cell service at home and use it exclusively for phone service over SL, and the same is true 90% of our boating time. And the nail in the coffin is that I think it’s more reliable than iridium.

 

[Fletcher500]

From the Southwest: Wifi for calling worked great. I also had various family members coming and going while we were out cruising this Summer and they had no issues with videoconferencing for work purposes. The farther away we got from people, the better it worked. I have the HP/Flat but sounds like people with the smaller dish are having the same good results. It also worked well during rain.

 

[DBG8492]

The farther away we got from people, the better it worked. I have the HP/Flat but sounds like people with the smaller dish are having the same good results. It also worked well during rain.

It's basically a shared medium so it works better the farther away you get from large numbers of people because there are fewer devices vying for connectivity with visible satellites.

And I have also found that it works surprisingly well in the rain even during pretty good thunderstorms here in South Florida.

 

[MYTraveler]

Although I have never used wifi calling, I do use Zoom (etc.) extensively with virtually zero interruptions of any sort. And zoom must require more bandwidth and is no more able to buffer, than voice alone. It may matter that my starlink is land based (although with a first gen antenna).

 

[AnnapolisJoy]

Works fine

I'm a new Starlink user and I'm wondering if anyone is using Wi-Fi Calling with it. I have Verizon which supports it and my Samsung 5g phone gives me Wi-Fi calling as an option. I've read user reviews of it, saying that it works but that it isnt stable and drops calls. I'm looking to retire my Iridium sat phone which works fine but is expensive to use.

Been using for over 2 years. Works great. iPhones, iPads etc. love it!

 

[TBW]

Jasper, Alberta to Warderick Wells; A+
Works better, more stable than phone company or certainly any cable company.
(That warm feeling right over your heart you get when you tell the cable company to go jump in a volcano never goes away.)

 

[RLKramer]

I've used wifi calling from Bahamas. The best part is that my provider, t-mobile, views that I'm calling via Wi-Fi through the starlink address in Atlanta which seems to be what everybody has as their ISP address. So... There was no international Wi-Fi calling charge as there would have been normally if it was viewed as a Bahamian location. I used it for 6 months last winter and it was Rock solid great.

 

[BluewaterN47]

I used Starlink for wi-fi calling as a backup to my AT&T service all around Penobscot Bay for four months this past summer and never had an issue. Cell service in that part of Maine is not good, and if Starlink had faltered in filling in for AT&T I feel certain I'd have noticed it--but I found absolutely no dropping out of my signal. I used it underway, at anchor and underway but never at speeds faster than 9 knots, which is below the 10 mph limit for using Starlink underway.



Seems to me you're good to go!


Milt Baker, American Tug 34 Bluewater V, Southwest Harbor, ME

 

[Csellars]

We spent 5 months in BC and Alaska this year. Made calls daily, texted pictures and had uninterrupted internet just like we were at home.

 

[billdomb]

I'm a new Starlink user and I'm wondering if anyone is using Wi-Fi Calling with it.

We use Starlink, and wifi calling shows up on the phone from time to time. Transparent and identical performance with regular calling.

 

[rodlhearne]

WiFi calling

Yes of course. Abroad we use WhatsApp and it works perfectly.

 

[Kiwi.]

We've been using WhatsApp all summer in the Med and it's worked fine. Also Wi-Fi calling to avoid expensive cellular calls back home (NZ). Star link is not perfect for phone calls when you are moving even though we pay the moving fees; cellular was designed specifically for car phones and has a very sophisticated handover protocol from cell tower to cell tower. (That's why it's called cellular.) At 9.5 knots cruising speed we do get some drop outs.