#TechWonders #CanYouHearMeNow? So picture this: you’re trying to video call your bestie, but you need to scramble around for that elusive WiFi signal. π‘π But have you ever wondered why we need the Internet to make video calls in the first place? Why can’t we just use good old cell towers like we do for regular calls?
I mean, our phones can work some serious magic, right? So why the extra step of needing WiFi or data for video calls? It’s like trying to juggle a bunch of balls when all you really need is a single hoop! π€ΉββοΈ
What’s the deal with this tech conundrum? Why can’t we simplify things and just connect through good ol’ cell towers? Why add the extra layer of Internet to the mix? Let’s dive into this digital mystery together and see if we can crack the code. π΅οΈββοΈπ»
But seriously, can anyone shed some light on this subject? Let’s unravel this tech puzzle! π¬π #TechTalks #VideoCallDilemma #WiFiWoes
I’m guessing you’re referring to internet connectivity over Wi-Fi? The simplest answer is because video takes up a *lot* more bandwidth than audio, and cellular frequencies have limited bandwidth space due to the hundreds/thousands of other people all trying to use the same antennas.
And while there are video compression tricks that allow you to use your cellular connection to watch video via YouTube, Netflix, etc., you’re only downloading the video signal. With a video call you’re no only downloading a video from the network, you’re also uploading a video of your own at the same time, meaning you need twice the bandwidth of someone watching a YouTube channel.
As a result, most providers won’t even entertain the idea of cellular video calls; the network would be overloaded pretty quickly.
Transmitting voice takes very little “space” compared to high quality video. This space is called bandwidth and, in simplification, the bigger the bandwidth the more data you can send.Β
Modern cell towers are also used for mobile data (internet connection) so technically you can video call through a cell tower.
There are several generations of cell tower signal, 5G is the latest common one. In simplification, newer generations could carry more data but had less range. We keep some of the older generations because they have bigger range, and more importantly, so that older devices are still supported.
Mobile data became a thing in 2.5G (an evolution of 2G but not a big enough difference to be called a generation newer)
What kind of phone are you using that can’t make video calls over the cell towers? Do you perhaps mean “why can’t we do it through the cell towers without using cellular data?” Because you certainly can make video calls without being on wi-fi.
But assuming we’re in agreement on that point, the problem is that carriers have agreed on a standard for how phone calls should work from one device to the other, and how text messages should be sent from one device to another, but there’s no common standard for video calling. So you end up using Facetime, Meet, or another app to make the call because it’s just not something the carrier can do. If video calls were possible, it would need to use a system that was supported by all smartphones and all carriers at once, and it is incredibly difficult to get anyone to agree on that. Also, there is no financial incentive, because carriers would never get away with charging for video calls as all smartphones have apps built in for that.
Technically it is possible. Since 4G was fully implemented with IMS in the background there is a technology called ViLTE or Video over LTE but it never really took off. It was replaced by video calls on applications such as facetime or whatsapp. That technology would use network native video capability via dedicated bearer (imagine having your own dedicated lane on highway) unlike these applications which use the standard data bearer that is shared between all people on a single antenna. The main reason why ViLTE never took hold is that app use is much more common since the basic internet is now good enough and you don’t really need to have dedicated resources.
Source: Am telco system architect.
Well, AFAIK 3G cellular was designed with this in mind. Just that the internet developed faster, and video streaming through internet is more stable and robust, so gradually people and providers no longer do video calls using cellular direct.
Iβd settle on 320 kbps phone calls.
Weβre currently at a pathetic 64 kbps phone calls which are really subpar.
Itβs because video calling is data intensive and cell phone companies currently donβt want to offer that for free.
A couple of things to consider here.
First, it *was* possible to make “normal” video calls at one point. AT&T called this service “Picturephone.” They had been working on It as far back as 1930, and the service [officially launched in 1970](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQMnlKMFD8M).
The problem was, it was very expensive… too expensive for most people to have in their homes or use it daily. It was expensive because it required specialized equipment and phone lines to work.. sometimes multiple phone lines bundled together, just for the video signal. The “normal” way to send video took up a lot of space and resources, whether it was through phone lines, or even over the air. If you think back to when TV was mostly watched over the air through an antenna, you typically had only half a dozen TV stations in large cities, and even less in smaller cities. Compare that to today, where you have hundreds of channels you can watch over cable and streaming services over the internet, and can even watch whatever you like, whenever and wherever. Again, this is because the old, analog way of sending video through airwaves wasn’t efficient and took up a lot of space. And you didn’t even get that great of a picture compared to what we can get now.
Over time though, scientists figured out ways to make sending video take up less space. Computers got more powerful, and could slice up the image into bits of data, and then *compress* that data so it took up a lot less space. Computers also use the way people understand images to cut corners a little… they remove little amounts of detail that most of us won’t notice when looking at video, in order to save more of that space.
So now, we have *digital* video, which heavily involves computers… most of which are connected to the internet, and have WiFi connections now. Since those video calls are now reduced to data, the internet and Wifi just happen to be the best ways to send those video calls. It makes more sense to do this rather than come up with a whole new way to make video calls, or make the old, analog, “regular” way of making calls work for video.
Incidentally: the same thing is happening to regular, audio-only phone calls, too. Wifi calling is now possible for regular phone calls, when a cell tower is too far away or the signal is too weak. This is because regular phone calls are being converted to digital data now, as well, and are also being sent over the internet. The phone numbers we use to make those calls are still around because A. we’re used to having them, and B. some parts (but it’s becoming less and less) of the old phone network are still handling calls the old-fashioned way. But, most of the time we’re actually speaking over the internet and might not even know it.
Assuming you mean making video calls over traditional phone lines, the main reason is that traditional phone and internet use different methods of communications.
Phone calls use circuit-switching. Basically, you dial up someone and then you get a dedicated link to the person on the other end. All data you produce get sent directly to the other end and vice versa.
Internet uses packet switching. Basically, the data gets chopped up into packets and get sent over multiple shared lines to their destination. It gets reassembled at the other end in order and then gets presented to the user.
While we do phone calls over internet (voip), we don’t do video calls over phone lines. I’m guessing it has to do with bandwidth limitations, but I don’t know enough about the subject to comment further.
An ‘internet connection’ can mean 3G, 4G or 5G cellular, Wi-Fi or an Ethernet wire, so I’m not fully clear on what you mean.
(Technically it could also include 2G networks as GPRS was introduced way back on old cellular networks – or even a 56k modem type connection.)
3G mobile networks were designed with video calling in mind – and it was a highly publicised (and very expensive) feature. Nowadays any SIM with a data connection can transfer data and can connect to the internet or make video calls.
You need enough bandwidth and signal for it to work, but you aren’t obliged to use Wi-Fi or ethernet and you absolutely can make video calls of all sorts over cellular data.
I think itβs because cell providers are too lazy to make the thing when the other thing already exists.