Wi-Fi Calling lets you make calls from your mobile phone anywhere you have Wi-Fi, even when there’s no mobile signal
Wi-Fi calling enables smartphone users to make and receive calls over a wireless internet connection as opposed to a typical cellular mobile network connection.
You will need to check if you have the right pay monthly consumer or business mobile phone contract in place and your smartphone model and software version will need to support this type of phone calling over the internet.
Does better broadband equal better mobile phone coverage?
Many of Save9’s customers who take up our rural broadband internet services often ask if they can also get a better level of mobile phone service. The answer is yes, but not because we might share radio towers with the mobile network operators. Here’s how…
Save9’s new rural based internet customers typically use our company because they have suffered from poor internet connectivity for many years. Their geographical location usually means they live or work in an area with limited landline broadband services. Long distances to the nearest Superfast broadband cabinet or a local telephone exchange is usually a good indicator that traditional landline broadband performance won’t be up-to-scratch. On top of that mobile phone signal quality can also be less than desirable or even non-existent in many rural areas around the UK.
Our wireless network speeds typically range between 30Mbps to 100Mbps at each customer property (both ways – we’re fully synchronous!) and our latency is extremely low because of the fibre leased lines that feed our radio towers. These technical performance features of our type of wireless internet service means that making high quality phone calls over the internet is now feasible.
Whether you are a Save9 customer or not – here’s how the different UK MNO’s (Mobile Network Operators) permit their customers to make voice calls over Wi-Fi. Note: for commercial reasons some of the MNO’s will deduct each Wi-Fi based phone call duration from any monthly minutes that may be provided under their mobile phone contract with you. If you have an unlimited calls package then that may not be of any concern – always best to check though.
If you own a Smartphone capable of Wi-Fi Calling, have the right mobile phone contract in place and you are wirelessly connected to your property Wi-Fi – then making calls over the internet is straightforward.
Here are the main UK Mobile Network Operator’s web-links on how you can go about achieving WiFi calling in tandem with their network from your smartphone…
Making Wi-Fi phone calls with free smartphone apps
You can also make free phone calls on a wide range of smartphone apps if you don’t have the right mobile phone contract in place with O2, Vodafone, Three or EE – this includes Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype and Facetime. Tech Advisor has put together some useful guides on how to achieve this on some of the most popular platforms – https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/mobile-phone/free-phone-calls-3654333/. One of the requirements is that typically the person you want to call must also subscribe to the same service you are calling them via – e.g. WhatsApp.
