EE By Gum, WiFi Connection Everyone

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09 April 2015 | Updated 01 January 1970

EE states that the UK’s first launch of WiFi Calling will help over 4 million people who say they lose mobile connection in at least one room in their house or business.

The recent survey of connectivity in the home also found that a 25% of people in the UK work from home at least one day per week and 20% of those lose connectivity during the day which means WiFi Calling could be a big benefit to the country’s increasingly mobile workforce.

With claims that will go down well in every Daily Mail household, EE states that as well as helping people across the UK in homes and small/home offices, WiFi Calling can also change the value of a property. “Mobile coverage is becoming increasingly important to people when they’re buying a property, so innovations like this can help sellers ensure they are maximising the value and are not losing out due to poor mobile coverage,” stated Simon Gerrard, President, National Association of Estate Agents.

Not all may be quite as rosy as EE’s promotion is boasting. According to the BBC, the immediate drawbacks are:

• The Wi-fi Calling facility will initially be limited to pay monthly subscribers using Samsung's Galaxy S6 and S5 phones and Microsoft's new Lumia 640. (The iPhone 5S and newer Apple handsets will also be supported.)
• It cannot be extended to other older models, since it requires specific mobile data components to be built into the devices. (Nevertheless, EE has promised it would soon offer a compatible own-brand budget smartphone.) 

On the plus side, calling from EE uses the phone’s normal dialler and contacts book to make calls, and the normal text button to send text messages. There is no need for an app, and others do not need to be using the same closed user group services to talk to or message each other.

WiFi Calling from EE will be available from launch on the Lumia 640 and from Friday 10 April on the brand new Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. More new and existing devices will be added to the WiFi Calling range in the coming weeks, and by summer 2015 more than five million EE pay monthly customers will have access to WiFi Calling.

WiFi Calling will be available to EE pay monthly consumer and small business customers with compatible devices and to corporate 4GEE customers with compatible devices this summer.

Picture:    EE claims WiFi Calling will help over 4 million people with problems with mobile connection. 

Article written by Robin Snow | Published 09 April 2015

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