EE says its soon-to-be-released ‘voice over Wi-Fi’ feature will help to reduce frustration for customers who live in areas where mobile reception is lacking.
The service, which allows customers to make calls and send texts using only a wireless internet connection, was unveiled at an industry event earlier this week. The company hopes to make it available to smartphone owners before the end of the year, trustedreviews.com reports.
Although EE demonstrated the new technology using a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone, the feature will eventually become available on a wide range of handsets. According to v3.co.uk, the user won’t be required to download any dedicated software.
It’s not the first instance of Wi-Fi being used to bypass the need for a cellular network signal. Applications such as Skype and WhatsApp have proved popular in recent years, but EE director Tom Bennett promises his company’s new service will be of a higher quality than its competitors.
The company’s chief technical officer, Fotis Karonis, added to this, saying: “The customer experience is seamless because it’s the same as making a network call and uses the normal call interface of the handset.
“This is a major part of our strategy to invest in giving customers the ability to make a call wherever they are, and we’re confident that this service can make a big difference to people in homes and large offices across the country.”
