WiFi Calls?

[Elaine5715]

For my next cruise, I am traveling with others so we got the Social WiFi plan to stay in touch.  I do not want any work phone calls or texts slipping through so do I need to be sure WiFi calling is turned off?  What else?  

[shof515]

wifi calling never works onboard the ship, the ship blocks it. you dont need to turn off wifi calling, it can remain on

 

wifi calling does not use any cellular service, it uses whatever wifi it is connected to do the calling and texting. if you are in the port with decent wifi, you can use wifi calling for text and calling.  make sure the phone is still in airplane mode when making calls

[Elaine5715]

3 hours ago, shof515 said:

wifi calling never works onboard the ship, the ship blocks it. you dont need to turn off wifi calling, it can remain on

 

wifi calling does not use any cellular service, it uses whatever wifi it is connected to do the calling and texting. if you are in the port with decent wifi, you can use wifi calling for text and calling.  make sure the phone is still in airplane mode when making calls

I wondered how that worked.  Thank you.  I was having nightmares that the co-worker would call to ask why the light is flashing on the printer.  

[mz-s]

As long as the phone is in airplane mode, calls and SMS won't go through.

[staceyglow]

17 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

I wondered how that worked.  Thank you.  I was having nightmares that the co-worker would call to ask why the light is flashing on the printer.  

Send out an email before you leave saying that you won't be answering any work-related messages.  That is what I used to do.  

 

Or do what I saw online once...someone got a work-related text while he was on vacation and he responded with a picture of his hand making an obscene gesture with a view of the ocean in the background.  🤣

 

[Moonarino]

13 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

For my next cruise, I am traveling with others so we got the Social WiFi plan to stay in touch.  I do not want any work phone calls or texts slipping through so do I need to be sure WiFi calling is turned off?  What else?  

 

The surest way to prevent wifi calling (the title of your topic) is to find "Wifi Calling" in your phone's settings and disable it. BUT, as shof15 wrote, Carnival blocks wifi calling through the ship's network. It could work in ports where wifi is available, but you would have to actively connect to a wifi resource first. So I'd say no worries at all regarding unwanted calls.

 

Otherwise just turn airplane mode on and leave it on for the entire cruise. Wifi and the Hub app's Chat option always work in airplane mode (with your phone's wifi turned on of course).

 

[Elaine5715]

1 hour ago, staceyglow said:

Send out an email before you leave saying that you won't be answering any work-related messages.  That is what I used to do.  

 

Or do what I saw online once...someone got a work-related text while he was on vacation and he responded with a picture of his hand making an obscene gesture with a view of the ocean in the background.  🤣

 

I have told them for years my phone doesn't work onboard so they expect just to leave a voice message. I don't want to blow my cover.  

[alyssamma]

I'm a little confused about this. I've done wifi calling and calling via WhatsApp with the top level plan.

[mz-s]

34 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

I'm a little confused about this. I've done wifi calling and calling via WhatsApp with the top level plan.

 

WhatsApp, Facetime, etc., is not the same thing wifi calling. Carnival only blocks wifi calling.

[alyssamma]

6 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

WhatsApp, Facetime, etc., is not the same thing wifi calling. Carnival only blocks wifi calling.

I said I've made wifi *and* WhatsApp calling.

 

Edited: Maybe I'm mistaken, lol. But I could have sworn I did it...looking at other posts here it does seem to be blocked, so I have to be misremembering...

Edited April 18 by alyssamma

[mz-s]

11 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

I said I've made wifi *and* WhatsApp calling.

 

Edited: Maybe I'm mistaken, lol. But I could have sworn I did it...looking at other posts here it does seem to be blocked, so I have to be misremembering...

 

You haven't done wifi calling on Carnival, at least. Other lines don't block wifi calling.

[alyssamma]

15 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

You haven't done wifi calling on Carnival, at least. Other lines don't block wifi calling.

I still believe I have...but maybe it was a while ago. Looking through CC shows some people who've had success.

[mz-s]

26 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

I still believe I have...but maybe it was a while ago. Looking through CC shows some people who've had success.

 

I suppose it's possible that many years ago they didn't block wifi calling.

[aborgman]

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

 

WhatsApp, Facetime, etc., is not the same thing wifi calling. Carnival only blocks wifi calling.

 

If you're making a voice call over IP - it is.

 

It is VOIP calling. Just like my office phone is VOIP calling whether I use my old school Aastra handset, or I dial out using Zoom on my desktop computer, or I use WhatsApp VoIP on my desktop computer.

 

People can literally call my office number on an old school landline phone - and I can answer that call on an old school phone handset, answer it in Zoom on my computer, answer it in Zoom on my cell phone, answer it in WhatsApp VoIP on my computer, or answer it in WhatsApp VoIP on my cellphone.

 

 

[mz-s]

9 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

If you're making a voice call over IP - it is.

 

It is VOIP calling. Just like my office phone is VOIP calling whether I use my old school Aastra handset, or I dial out using Zoom on my desktop computer, or I use WhatsApp VoIP on my desktop computer.

 

People can literally call my office number on an old school landline phone - and I can answer that call on an old school phone handset, answer it in Zoom on my computer, answer it in Zoom on my cell phone, answer it in WhatsApp VoIP on my computer, or answer it in WhatsApp VoIP on my cellphone.

 

 

 

You can say whatever you want but words matter. It is prudent for us to use the same terminology and definitions as Carnival when we are talking about Carnival's products and procedures to avoid confusion.

 

Again, Carnival blocks Wifi calling which is provisioned by cellular carriers. Whatsapp is not wifi calling and is therefore not blocked. Yes, you can use Whatsapp or Facetime to place audio calls but they are not carrier-provisioned wifi calling calls and you cannot use Whatsapp to call a landline phone number, which is what most people are interested in if they're asking for wifi calling.

 

There are ways to make calls to landlines over Carnival's wifi - but that is outside of the scope of this discussion I think. No sense in muddying the waters unnecessarily. 

[alyssamma]

11 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

You can say whatever you want but words matter. It is prudent for us to use the same terminology and definitions as Carnival when we are talking about Carnival's products and procedures to avoid confusion.

 

Again, Carnival blocks Wifi calling which is provisioned by cellular carriers. Whatsapp is not wifi calling and is therefore not blocked. Yes, you can use Whatsapp or Facetime to place audio calls but they are not carrier-provisioned wifi calling calls and you cannot use Whatsapp to call a landline phone number, which is what most people are interested in if they're asking for wifi calling.

 

There are ways to make calls to landlines over Carnival's wifi - but that is outside of the scope of this discussion I think. No sense in muddying the waters unnecessarily. 

This distinction is correct...

[aborgman]

11 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

You can say whatever you want but words matter. It is prudent for us to use the same terminology and definitions as Carnival when we are talking about Carnival's products and procedures to avoid confusion.

 

Again, Carnival blocks Wifi calling which is provisioned by cellular carriers. Whatsapp is not wifi calling and is therefore not blocked. Yes, you can use Whatsapp or Facetime to place audio calls but they are not carrier-provisioned wifi calling calls and you cannot use Whatsapp to call a landline phone number, which is what most people are interested in if they're asking for wifi calling.

 

There are ways to make calls to landlines over Carnival's wifi - but that is outside of the scope of this discussion I think. No sense in muddying the waters unnecessarily. 

 

Yes, words matter.

 

No matter how you do it - if you make a voice call over internet protocol.. it is internet calling.

 

If you use WiFi to connect to the internet and make a Voice Over IP call - it's WiFi calling.

 

Carnival blocks WiFi calling protocols used by cell phone carriers. It appears that Carnival does not block WiFi calling over WhatsApp.

 

I suspect they also don't block WiFi calling over Viber or Talkatone, and I've seen a number of assertions that they don't block WiFi calling over Google Voice.

 

I also suspect some pretty simple spoofing/hiding through a relayer would get regular cell phone WiFi calling through.

[aborgman]

"Wi-Fi calling can also be understood by the fact that calls made over Wi-Fi use the Voice over the Internet (VoIP) protocol instead of the Voice over LTE network (VoLTE) protocol. To help you understand this better, apps like WhatsApp, Skype, and Facebook Messenger also use the VoIP network to make calls."

[Elaine5715]

33 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

You can say whatever you want but words matter. It is prudent for us to use the same terminology and definitions as Carnival when we are talking about Carnival's products and procedures to avoid confusion.

 

Again, Carnival blocks Wifi calling which is provisioned by cellular carriers. Whatsapp is not wifi calling and is therefore not blocked. Yes, you can use Whatsapp or Facetime to place audio calls but they are not carrier-provisioned wifi calling calls and you cannot use Whatsapp to call a landline phone number, which is what most people are interested in if they're asking for wifi calling.

 

There are ways to make calls to landlines over Carnival's wifi - but that is outside of the scope of this discussion I think. No sense in muddying the waters unnecessarily. 

 

14 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

Yes, words matter.

 

No matter how you do it - if you make a voice call over internet protocol.. it is internet calling.

 

If you use WiFi to connect to the internet and make a Voice Over IP call - it's WiFi calling.

 

Carnival blocks WiFi calling protocols used by cell phone carriers. It appears that Carnival does not block WiFi calling over WhatsApp.

 

I suspect they also don't block WiFi calling over Viber or Talkatone, and I've seen a number of assertions that they don't block WiFi calling over Google Voice.

 

I also suspect some pretty simple spoofing/hiding through a relayer would get regular cell phone WiFi calling through.

I embrace my Boomerness...how the sounds go from here to there is magic beyond my comprehension.. 

[alyssamma]

13 minutes ago, aborgman said:

"Wi-Fi calling can also be understood by the fact that calls made over Wi-Fi use the Voice over the Internet (VoIP) protocol instead of the Voice over LTE network (VoLTE) protocol. To help you understand this better, apps like WhatsApp, Skype, and Facebook Messenger also use the VoIP network to make calls."

This is a correct, but misleading. The distinction being made by @mz-s is the same distinction that Carnival makes. Carriers do this too. For example, I can be anywhere in the world, connected to wifi, and call anywhere else in the world on WhatsApp for free.

 

However, if I am on that *same* wifi network and make a wifi carrier call, it will be free if I call the USA, but will cost me if I call another country.

 

So, yes, the underlying protocols are the same, but the way they are used is different. The OP here clearly meant carrier based wifi calling. That appears to be blocked now (always?) by Carnival. Other types of wifi calling are not.

[Sabalon]

5 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

I wondered how that worked.  Thank you.  I was having nightmares that the co-worker would call to ask why the light is flashing on the printer.  

 

Yeah...I get this!!!   I have some people that bypass the help desk, bypass my desk phone and just call me straight on my work cell and expect me to be happy to walk them through something there have been emails, guides, etc made.  
Last time I was out, my out of office had a map with a "You are here" and a "I am here" with a dot in the middle of the Gulf.  

(Though when I got back I did get admonished by staff and our HR directory for answering e-mails)
I like going with the limited connectivity, port was busy low bandwidth, etc..  Never mind my phone works all over Latin America just fine 🙂

 

On board - keep airplane mode on (which will disable cellular and sms) and let Wifi do it's thing.  Even if they didn't block it, there is a certain amount of quality of signal and connection you need before it'll activate - I doubt it even would over the ship wifi.
In ports, depends on if you have international coverage or not with your plan.  I turn my cellular on, but am very selective about what I will answer.   Let the world turn without you for a few days and nights and enjoy yourself!!!

[RoperDK]

Oh, how I wish that Carnival would add wifi calling and texting.  I would pay for the premium package to get it.  If Royal can do it, so can Carnival!  We have full access with WhatsApp, but my 96 year old father just understands to pick up the phone and call.  😔 

[mz-s]

4 minutes ago, RoperDK said:

Oh, how I wish that Carnival would add wifi calling and texting.  I would pay for the premium package to get it.  If Royal can do it, so can Carnival!  We have full access with WhatsApp, but my 96 year old father just understands to pick up the phone and call.  😔 

 

Can't help with texting, but with Skype Premium you can make phone calls to landlines over VOIP and Carnival does not block Skype. They may also allow Google Voice, I have never tried.

 

If you subscribe to Office 365, you get 60 minutes of Skype VOIP calls every month. Google Voice is free.

[shof515]

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

They may also allow Google Voice, I have never tried.

 

calling using google voice never worked for me, text message worked very good

Edited April 19 by shof515

[aborgman]

12 hours ago, RoperDK said:

Oh, how I wish that Carnival would add wifi calling and texting.  I would pay for the premium package to get it.  If Royal can do it, so can Carnival!  We have full access with WhatsApp, but my 96 year old father just understands to pick up the phone and call.  😔 

 

Your 96 year old father can just pick up a regular phone and call your WhatsApp.

 

It's a bit painful to setup (registering a landline number as WhatsApp number) - but it can be done.