WAIT WHAT

Google is becoming increasingly hostile to projects like GrapheneOS. I hope their deal with the new OEM they're working with succeeds and provides them some shelter. People buy Pixel phones specifically to install GrapheneOS, so it must help Pixel sales, but of course when Google notices something good happening they have to try to crush it.

https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/

https://furilabs.com/

https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-community-phone

Yeah but any alternative will just be aggressively bought by one of the big companies. It's hard to hold integrity and not sell when you are probably struggling to make growth.

They talk about it in the article.

In theory, any phone with the right hardware for a carrier’s cellular frequencies should be able to use VoLTE, and any capable phone with a supporting plan should get VoWiFi. The reality, however, is more complex. Many carriers only permit VoLTE and VoWiFi on devices they sell or have officially tested. This means that even if your imported Pixel has the necessary hardware, the carrier can still block these features, potentially preventing you from making voice calls entirely.

What's the benefit of volte?

Esp forcing it?

The article implies simply rooting will do - something I haven't done in quite a while, but last I knew didn't involve wiping your existing setup.

They’ve been doing it for quite a while

The carriers probably paywall it.

That's how the big bucks are made.

They only made one small update to their "Don't be evil" motto.

That's not enough. Annihilate ALL of big tech.

IIRC, it was announced at some point that US cell towers were compromised for several years (Salt Typhoon?) and it can't be confirmed that state actors don't still functionally own the infrastructure. This matters because the US for some fucking reason won't let SMS die.

As per their current M.O. Be Evil!

From my understanding it is basically VoIP which rides the data connection encrypted back to the phone carrier. This has advantage of not being able to be hijacked by cell tower interceptors like StingRay. This basically means that it’s much harder for governments and other entities to spy on phone calls since it’s part of the data channel and not the “voice” channel.

Bandwidth wise, I’m not as certain but it could have impacts there if they don’t have QoS correctly configured.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong?

"VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is the feature that routes voice calls over a 4G LTE connection, a crucial function now that carriers worldwide are phasing out their 2G and 3G networks. Without it, you might not be able to make phone calls at all on many modern networks. Similarly, VoWiFi (Voice over WiFi) handles Wi-Fi calling, routing calls over a Wi-Fi network instead of cellular — a handy feature when you’re in a building with poor signal."

Basically, some countries don't have access to VoLTE or VoWIFI.

Since they don't have official access they were using this to gain access (in places where pixel phones aren't on the market/not sold in that country for instance).

If VoWIFi/wifi calling wasn't available where I live I wouldn't be able to use my cell phone to make and receive calls and texts while at home. My place is a dead zone.

Some places also have spotty 5G service. So VoLTE would work better in those areas too.