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Well, this sort of reinforces the point - there are about zero places in Europe where you have Wifi but do not have cheap almost-unlimited 4G/LTE. In fact it's

by lstodd 3y ago

Well, this sort of reinforces the point - there are about zero places in Europe where you have Wifi but do not have cheap almost-unlimited 4G/LTE. In fact it's wifi that's dying out here, the only thing that keeps it alive is that in a cafe setting it's still somewhat faster, and it eats a bit less battery.

eightysixfour 3y ago
I’m not sure we are talking about the same thing - just because you have cheap unlimited 4G doesn’t mean you get that 4G signal in a basement. VoWifi lets you still call someone with your phone number when the signal is bad but you have wifi access…
- lstodd 3y ago
  I was never into insisting to only talk on the phone from the basement of my medieval castle. The view from the battlements is much better. We're not all jamesbondesque supervillains here. Like I said above, for like $8/mo you have in fact unlimited 4G at decent speeds here. Or for idk maybe $15 you can get a gpon, unlimited traffic, 30+Mbit to the house, depending on local laziness of course. And that is for a rural place in Balkans, not something in more civilized places.
  - eightysixfour 3y ago
    Yes, and VoWifi lets your cell phone make a call over that fiber when your wireless coverage isn’t great. Not really sure where castles and battlements come to play here - there are plenty of completely normal places people visit with connectivity issues. Maybe it is your experience in the rural balkans, where cellular congestion and significant building density aren’t factors, and your assumption it must be better in “civilized” places that is confusing the issue…
  - macNchz 3y ago
    I just got back from a week in Paris where I frequently had limited cell service indoors on a major provider. Even with antennas all over there’s just a lot of masonry for signals to get through. I’ve been really happy on many occasions to have Wifi calling, both where I live in NYC (where service sometimes behaves similarly to Paris) and the rural places I visit frequently (where having the cellular modem off while at home saves tons of battery vs constantly having no service).
  - kelnos 3y ago
    I do love how, seemingly to counteract the US-centric nature of many discussions, some Europeans act as though Europe is this one homogeneous block where everything works the same everywhere. I guarantee you there are quite a few people in various countries in Europe where they don't have great cellular coverage, whether because of their location, or because of the building materials used in whatever house or office building they spend a lot of time in. Regardless, I don't really get the hate toward VoWifi. Like... it's an added option. In some cases it might be redundant (or worse than the normal VoLTE option), but... it's an added option, that you don't have to use, that can be a great fallback in some cases.
sib 3y ago
Europe is approximately 7% of the land surface area of the world. We don't all live in small, densely populated places :)
- lstodd 3y ago
  And US is 6.1% Your point?
  - callalex 3y ago
    Would you describe the entirety of the US as “densely populated”?
  - sib 3y ago
    My point is exactly what I said. There are lots of parts of the world where mobile service is not good (or available at all) because it's not economically sensible to build out coverage where populations are very low. You wrote "there are about zero places in Europe where you have Wifi but do not have cheap almost-unlimited 4G/LTE" on a site with a global audience.
    - iggldiggl 3y ago
      And even where the connectivity is there, the "cheap almost-unlimited" bit might not necessarily be true – that, too, significantly varies from country to country.
cyberax 3y ago
That's not quite true. There are older buildings with brick walls that have bad cellular reception. Conversely, some high rises have a too _good_ reception and the radio spectrum can get congested.
- lstodd 3y ago
  Where it does matter they put a femtocell which is about as complicated as a wifi AP.
wrboyce 3y ago
I live in the UK and pretty much rely on VoWifi to make/receive calls when at home. I can also think of a few places within an hours drive where my reception drops to “No Service”. You are completely wrong in your assertions.

by lstodd 3y ago

eightysixfour 3y ago

I’m not sure we are talking about the same thing - just because you have cheap unlimited 4G doesn’t mean you get that 4G signal in a basement. VoWifi lets you still call someone with your phone number when the signal is bad but you have wifi access…

lstodd 3y ago
I was never into insisting to only talk on the phone from the basement of my medieval castle. The view from the battlements is much better. We're not all jamesbondesque supervillains here. Like I said above, for like $8/mo you have in fact unlimited 4G at decent speeds here. Or for idk maybe $15 you can get a gpon, unlimited traffic, 30+Mbit to the house, depending on local laziness of course. And that is for a rural place in Balkans, not something in more civilized places.
- eightysixfour 3y ago
  Yes, and VoWifi lets your cell phone make a call over that fiber when your wireless coverage isn’t great. Not really sure where castles and battlements come to play here - there are plenty of completely normal places people visit with connectivity issues. Maybe it is your experience in the rural balkans, where cellular congestion and significant building density aren’t factors, and your assumption it must be better in “civilized” places that is confusing the issue…
- macNchz 3y ago
  I just got back from a week in Paris where I frequently had limited cell service indoors on a major provider. Even with antennas all over there’s just a lot of masonry for signals to get through. I’ve been really happy on many occasions to have Wifi calling, both where I live in NYC (where service sometimes behaves similarly to Paris) and the rural places I visit frequently (where having the cellular modem off while at home saves tons of battery vs constantly having no service).
- kelnos 3y ago
  I do love how, seemingly to counteract the US-centric nature of many discussions, some Europeans act as though Europe is this one homogeneous block where everything works the same everywhere. I guarantee you there are quite a few people in various countries in Europe where they don't have great cellular coverage, whether because of their location, or because of the building materials used in whatever house or office building they spend a lot of time in. Regardless, I don't really get the hate toward VoWifi. Like... it's an added option. In some cases it might be redundant (or worse than the normal VoLTE option), but... it's an added option, that you don't have to use, that can be a great fallback in some cases.

sib 3y ago

Europe is approximately 7% of the land surface area of the world. We don't all live in small, densely populated places :)

lstodd 3y ago
And US is 6.1% Your point?
- callalex 3y ago
  Would you describe the entirety of the US as “densely populated”?
- sib 3y ago
  My point is exactly what I said. There are lots of parts of the world where mobile service is not good (or available at all) because it's not economically sensible to build out coverage where populations are very low. You wrote "there are about zero places in Europe where you have Wifi but do not have cheap almost-unlimited 4G/LTE" on a site with a global audience.
  - iggldiggl 3y ago
    And even where the connectivity is there, the "cheap almost-unlimited" bit might not necessarily be true – that, too, significantly varies from country to country.

cyberax 3y ago

That's not quite true. There are older buildings with brick walls that have bad cellular reception. Conversely, some high rises have a too _good_ reception and the radio spectrum can get congested.

lstodd 3y ago
Where it does matter they put a femtocell which is about as complicated as a wifi AP.

wrboyce 3y ago

I live in the UK and pretty much rely on VoWifi to make/receive calls when at home. I can also think of a few places within an hours drive where my reception drops to “No Service”. You are completely wrong in your assertions.