If you’re an iPhone owner and currently live in a major US city, you may see the words “SOS Only” on your status bar. You’re probably not alone, as as I write this the US is recovering from a major telephone outage that has left tens of thousands of people without service.
This outage affected one of the US’s largest wireless carriers: AT&T (it’s unclear whether another service was offline or simply receiving reports, as T-Mobile customers, for example, couldn’t contact anyone on ATT). Mobile companies are working to restore service, but it may take some time before everything is 100 percent again. Most smartphones will remain in the dark during this period. However, iPhones have a special SOS Only mode, which allows them to call emergency services if the network goes down unceremoniously.
Fortunately, you don’t have to wait for the network to come back online to make non-emergency calls, as iPhones support Wi-Fi calling. It’s a handy feature that, as the name suggests, lets you call friends or family over an internet connection instead of a cellular connection.
Set up Wi-Fi calling
Setting up Wi-Fi calling is easy.
First, open the iPhone Settings menu and then tap on the Phone option. Then select Wi-Fi Calling and in the next menu, toggle the switch next to “Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone.”
Make sure you’re connected to a local Wi-Fi network and you’re good to go. You can now contact friends or family without having to wait for your carrier to restore service.
Users also have the option to connect other devices to their smartphone so that they can make calls there as well.
First, turn on the switch next to “Add Wi-Fi calling for other devices.” Now go back to the previous menu and then tap on Call on other devices. On this screen, activate “Allow calls on other devices”.
Eligible devices, such as MacBooks and iPads, are shown in the list below. Turn on the switch on the hardware you want to use with Wi-Fi calling. Once everything is set up, go to the device’s respective FaceTime app, open the Settings menu and enable Calling from iPhone.
Ongoing dilemma
Even as we recover from the outage, no one seems to know what caused the network to go offline in the first place. One prevailing theory points the finger at solar flares fired on the night of February 21, while others suggest it’s all due to human error. Lee McKnight, associate professor at the iSchool at Syracuse University, told CNN An employee may have made a mistake somewhere in a provider’s cloud network and no one noticed. Eventually it evolved into the current situation.
People are understandably frustrated. Hopefully, enabling Wi-Fi calling will alleviate some of the stress.
While we’ve got you, check out Ny Breaking’s list of the best iPhone for 2024 if you’re in the market.