Last week I was in Tasmania wandering around the wilderness enjoying that my service provider, Vodafone, was giving me some forced digital detox time. Vodafone did not have their network servicing the area I was located. It was great, my phone did not ring, it did not beep and I was able to just use it for taking photos. Many times I have tried digital detoxing, but you inevitably think of some reason you need to connect to the network and with the swipe of a setting you are once again transferring calls or data.
This time would be different though as before departure I checked the maps of where we were going, the Three Capes track in South Eastern Tassie. No Vodafone service, pretty much no Optus service and almost no Telstra service. Bliss.
Well….almost. I had earlier decided to take my G-mee Connect device with me on the trip, just to see if it could connect to Telstra where their map showed a network of some kind at different points on our trek. When you are releasing a new phone you need to test it, out of the city locations, in places where there is little coverage, so you can see how it performs.
My problem was G-mee Connect performed aswell as the higher priced handset that was in the travelling group, connected to Telstra. I was using a Boost Mobile sim. It was a great result for the G-mee Connect, but meant I had more reception than I expected. Infact we were connecting to both 4g and 3g networks, so the reception in some places (like up a mountain) was so good I decided to run a little test.
Could I use the G-mee Connect, connected to Telstra, to create a hotspot so my phone (connected to Vodafone) and configured for wifi calling could make a call like I was on the Vodafone network? I wanted to dial a number and call some one, and have them not know I was not actually connected to the Vodafone mobile tower.
As I use Vodafone roaming when I travel, I have never tried to use the Wifi calling feature on my phone to make calls/sms when I am not actually on the Vodafone or Vodafone partner network. I was curious to see how it might work.
I didn’t wait long. After connecting my handset to the hotspot created by the G-mee Connect my phone rang within 30 seconds and on the end of the line was a tech company, maker of the phone I was using. I answered and they launched into the conversation, clearly not realising I was half way up a mountain looking in the direction of Antarctica, nowhere near civilisation. I then told them where I was, to be told ‘Wow, you are so clear!”
BOOM.
It worked and worked brilliantly, so I sent a quick sms to my wife telling her where I was and then promptly received one back telling me to get off my phone and get back to the digital detox I was doing!
The point is this, you can use this method for making calls/sms from your handset as long as you can connect to a wifi network. The faster the better, but connect to a wifi network, have your handset configured for wifi calling and you can then make and receive calls as if you were at home in Australia, from anywhere in the world. It works for sending and receiving sms to.
