Wi-Fi Calling - An Alternative Way To Use Cellphones In An Emergency

Prepping, communications, emergency preparedness
Communications play an important role in dealing with an Event - preppers /emergency preparedness communities typically value having backups to their main services. This post outlines a backup for making voice calls.  

By default, cellphones operate via local cellphone towers for your carrier. With Wi-Fi Calling, a voice call can be made through a broadband connection. In effect, the person is pointing the cell-phone to use a landline. 

During an Event, cell-phone towers can be knocked out, so Wi-Fi Calling gives people another way to call for help.  

To illustrate, below is a possible case-study based on some experiments I did with my own cell-phone. 

Scenario

  • 'Bob' is at the office, which has a wi-fi connection to a landline broadband service. 
  • An Event has occurred, knocking out all local cell-phone towers but the company broadband is working.
  • There are injuries that require an ambulance.

Sequence

  1. Bob confirms
    • The usual services via the cell-phone towers are offline.
    • The local landline broadband wi-fi connection is still working.
  1. Bob connects his cell-phone to the land-line wi-fi router.
  2. Bob turns on the Wi-Fi Calling on his cell-phone.
  3. Bob dials the emergency services number in the usual way.
  4. The phone directs the call to the carrier through the landline wi-fi rather than the tower network, and then onwards to the emergency services number.
  5. Bob reports the injuries in the usual manner.
Application

I'll be adding this to my list of emergency checks for during an Event, and looking into the potential to save on my cell-phone minutes during normal times.   

Assumptions & Caveats 
  1. That other cellphone networks aren't working, and someone else can use their connection to call for help.
  2. That your cellphone has Wi-Fi calling - not all do. 
  3. That you know how to use Wi-Fi Calling on your phone.  
  4. That during the Event, at least one wi-fi connection to the internet is working. 
  5. That a landline broadband connection is the only alternative. In principle, any form of broadband service with wi-fi e.g. satellite broadband, could be used. This is untested.
  6. The backup service is limited to the radius of the Wi-Fi connection.     
Location: 5M6F+W7 Auckland, New Zealand

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Solar Cooking: What I’ve Learned from Two Months of Real-World Use

Image
Over the past two months, I’ve been cooking with my GoSun Solar Cooker. This post shares practical lessons for anyone considering a solar oven—especially for prepping, off-grid cooking, or homesteading. 🧪 Testing Under Real-World Conditions To gather meaningful experience quickly, I’ve used my solar cooker as my primary oven for more than a month. During this time, I’ve cooked a wide variety of meals—breads, rice, steamed vegetables, curries, meats, and stews. Overall rating? Positive—but always have an alternative available. My trial period coincided with the seasonal shift from autumn into winter, revealing several practical challenges I hadn’t considered when I first purchased the unit. 🕒 A Typical Solar Cooking Day Planning ahead is essential. Here's how I generally manage the process: Weekly Meal Planning : As part of this, I check weather forecasts and plan accordingly. Morning Setup : Confirm weather conditions. Prepare ingr...
Read more

Appreciating the Fruits of My Efforts and Giving The Finger To Utility Companies.

Image
 While it's been another week for working on infrastructure as the dry weather persists, the small-wins come through daily with fresh tomatoes, celery, capsicums and salad greens in particular drip-feeding through daily. I have mixed feelings about this as I would prefer it all to arrive on an defined schedule, but then there is something highly satisfying about picking what I need when it is ready.   Weather-proofing the house has continued, with the damaged lintel above the front stairs now painted again, leaving the front and back stairs as the next priorities for action. Both of these involve repairs I don't know how to do - so it will be .... interesting.   In particular, I'm come to appreciate having my own rainwater collection system and solar system.  This summer has been dry with intermittent rainfall, yet I've kept gardens going off my tanks so far. It's gotten close with multiple last-minute saves, so another month of capacity seems my optimum ba...
Read more

Captains Log 02 March 2025

Image
This week is more of a general reflection- while there's always something to work on, I didn't have any specific development goals. Saying that, there are some good lessons and opportunity around the irrigation work.  This week has been about T he impact of easy irrigation Expanding the blue barrel irrigation to supply an adjacent vegepod, and Painting necessary part of the house to weatherproof for winter.   The Impact of Easy Irrigation Below are the ‘before’ and ‘after’ for the peanut experiment. I’ve tried to equalise the scale so size can be accurately compared. A)                                                                Plants Before                                              ...
Read more