‘Airtel Wi-Fi Calling’ Crosses One Million Users

In one of the fastest uptake of a new network technology in India, Airtel Wi-Fi Calling has already crossed one million users. 

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) was the first mobile operator to introduce Voice over Wi-Fi in India. Following the extremely positive customer feedback, the company has accelerated the roll-out of its innovative service across the country. 

• Airtel Wi-Fi Calling is now available to Airtel mobile customers across India. 


• Also, the service can now be accessed by Airtel mobile customers over any Home or Public Wi-Fi network, making their indoor service experience truly seamless.    

Airtel Wi-Fi Calling leverages cutting edge technology to enhance the indoor voice calling experience for Airtel smartphone customers. It uses Wi-Fi networks to create a dedicated channel for voice calls and allows customers to make telco grade calls to any network. This dramatically improves customer experience as customers can seamlessly switch to Airtel Wi-Fi Calling.

There is no extra charge for making calls via Airtel Wi-Fi Calling and customers can get started on Airtel Wi-Fi calling on their smartphone without the need for any additional calling App/ SIM.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO – Bharti Airtel said: “We are delighted with the extremely positive customer response for Airtel Wi-Fi Calling. The technology has truly transformed the indoor network quality for Airtel mobile customers, particularly in high population density areas in urban markets. Airtel is also the first to make the service LIVE across India and our customers can use the feature on any Wi-Fi.”      

Here is how you can get started with Airtel Wi-Fi Calling

1. Check device compatibility on airtel.in/wifi-calling


2. Upgrade device operating software to the latest version that supports Wi-Fi Calling*


3. Now, go to Settings on your mobile phone and Switch On Wi-Fi Callingto get started


4. Keep VoLTE switched on as well for a seamless experience 

Airtel has been engaging with smartphone manufacturers to make all popular smartphone models compatible with the service.  Over 100 smartphone models across 16 brands are now compatible with Airtel Wi-Fi Calling. 

 

Airtel Wi-Fi Calling compatible smartphones 

Brand	Count	Models
Xiaomi	7	Redmi K20, Redmi K20 Pro, POCO F1, Redmi 7A, Redmi 7, Redmi Note 7 Pro & Redmi Y3
Samsung	14	Galaxy J6, A10s, On6, M30s, S10, S10+, S10e,M20, Note 10, Note 9, Note 10+, M30, A30s, A50S
OnePlus	6	One Plus 7, One Plus 7T, One Plus 7Pro, One Plus 7T Pro, One Plus 6, One Plus 6T
Apple	28	iPhone models starting 6s and above (including all Variations of different models)
Vivo	2	V15 Pro, Y17
Tecno	10	Phantom 9, Spark Go Plus, Spark Go, Spark Air, Spark 4 (KC2), Spark 4-KC2J, Camon Ace 2, Camon Ace 2X, Camon12 Air, Spark Power
SPICE	2	Spice F311, Spice M5353
ITEL	1	A46
INFINIX	9	Hot 8, S5 Lite , S5, Note 4, Smart 2, Note 5, S4, Smart 3, Hot 7
Mobiistar	6	C1, C1 Lite, C1 Shine, C2, E1 Selfie, X1 Notch
CoolPad	5	Cool 3, Cool 5, Note 5, Mega 5C, Note 5 Lite
Gionee	2	F205 Pro, F103 Pro
Asus	2	Zen Phone Pro, Zen Pro Max
Micromax	3	Infinity N12, N11, B5
Xolo	1	XOLO ZX
Panasonic	4	P100,  Eluguray 700,  P95, P85 NXT
Total	102

For more details, log on to airtel.in/wifi-calling

 *This update is provided by handset manufacturer. Check with handset brand if you cannot find this upgrade.

Reliance Jio Launches Voice and Video Calling Over Wi-Fi

Reliance Jio on Wednesday launched voice and video calling over Wi-Fi service that will allow customers to switch seamlessly from LTE to Wi-Fi-based calling when they are at home or office.

The company said Jio Wi-Fi calling - which works on the largest ecosystem of handsets - will also allow users to make video calls over Wi-Fi. The service would be available for free.

The announcement comes less than a month after rival Airtel launched a similar service in Delhi-NCR.

Jio said it has been "testing this service over the past few months to provide a robust experience to every customer at launch".

Customers can use any Wi-Fi network for Jio Wi-Fi-calling. The voice and video calls will seamlessly switch over between VoLTE and Wi-Fi to provide an enhanced voice/video-calling experience, it added.

"At this juncture, when an average Jio consumer uses over 900 minutes of voice calls every month, and at a growing base of consumers, the launch of Jio Wi-Fi Calling will further enhance every Jio consumer's voice-calling experience, which is already a benchmark for the industry with India's-first all VoLTE network," Reliance Jio Director Akash Ambani said.

Jio Wi-Fi Calling will be enabled pan-India between January 7 and 16, the statement said.

Google Open Source Code for Wi-Fi Calling

Open-source operating systems like Android, provides developers the golden opportunity of ripping them apart from their fundamental code and rebuilding it according to their own needs and ends. A little while ago, Google, the search giant, launched Android-5.1.1_r5, the latest version of AOSP. What is the real treat is, in the latest version can be found the code which supports Wi-Fi-calling. But, don't get all pumped up. What may appear shiny from outside, might just end up being a fizz. Here we explain you why.

First of all, NOT all mobile carriers are offering Wi-Fi calling. Except T-Mobile and Sprint in the US and EE in the UK and a couple of others in other countries, most of the mobile carriers don't provide the facility of Wi-Fi calling to its customers. Further, the carriers are themselves required to support this feature. The main purpose that this code might be able to serve is for the developers, as they would get to implement it on unofficial software. It is important to note that the code is primarily devised for Nexus 6 but luckily, it can also be implemented on other AOSP based ROMs and stock. So, the phone preference really doesn't play a major hurdle.

What is getting people the most excited is the fact that they might be able to port Wi-Fi calling to devices likes Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, which officially don't support it. This is where the developers are facing the toughest challenge of their lives. Transferring Wi-Fi functionality to smartphones for which it wasn't initially designed possess a huge task for the developers as it involves modifications to the kernels, radios and at other deep software levels. On the top of it, with these modifications comes the potential risk of bricking the device on which the Wi-Fi functionality is being transferred.

So, if you think, you can do something interesting with the code, then access the code right here!

Get, set and Code!