EE has become the first UK mobile operator to roll out Wi-Fi calls and texts feature. The new service comes as a breather for over four million people, who complain of loosing mobile connection in at least one room in their house.
Using the new Wi-Fi calling feature, EE users will be able to make and receive calls over the internet in areas where mobile signal is weak. Users will also be able to send and receive text messages using the service.
The service, which will go live this Friday, April 10, will initially work on the Microsoft Lumia 640, Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge smartphones only. However, EE has ensured that more devices, including Apple’s iPhone, will get the feature in the coming weeks. The UK operator aims to roll out the service to more than five million pay monthly subscribers by summer.
WiFi Calling from EE will use a phone’s standard dialler and contacts book to make calls using a home or office WiFi connection. So, basically users won’t need to sign into or activate an additional app or over-the-top (OTT) service to use the Wi-Fi calling service.
Furthermore, users won’t have to bear any additional charge for the service, as minutes and texts made on a WiFi connection will be counted as part of their allowance and usage.
Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE, said “Losing coverage at home is a major frustration, and WiFi Calling will make a real difference to millions of customers across the UK, from basement flats in London to the most rural homes in the country.
“Our customers want to be able to call and text no matter where they are, and they don’t want to have to think about which app they need to use or if their friends have a particular third party service.”
