Airtel launches Voice over Wi-Fi service for better indoor voice call

Telecom company Bharti Airtel on Tuesday launched voice over Wi-Fi service, and said the industry-first offering will "significantly enhance" indoor voice calling experience for smartphone customers at no extra charge.

'Airtel Wi-Fi Calling' enables Airtel smartphone customers to switch seamlessly from LTE (Long-Term Evolution) to Wi-Fi based calling when they are inside their homes/offices, the company said in a statement, adding that there will be no extra charge for voice calls made with the service.

The offering currently available in Delhi/NCR, and it will be rolled out across the country in coming days.

"With 'Airtel Wi-Fi Calling', customers with Wi-Fi at home or office will get excellent signal quality indoors. There will be no extra charge for calls made over 'Airtel Wi-Fi Calling' and the application consumes minimal data," the statement said.

Commenting on the development, Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer of Bharti Airtel said, "Seamless indoor coverage has been a key ask from mobile customers but getting permissions for site installations has always been a big challenge for mobile operators, particularly in top metros. 'Airtel Wi-Fi Calling'...will go a long way in making the voice calling experience more seamless".

The service will not require any app and can be configured on the smartphone. Users will need to check smartphone compatibility on airtel.in/wifi-calling, upgrade device operating software to the latest version that supports Wi-Fi Calling, and then go to settings and switch on Wi-Fi calling to get started.

The smartphones that currently support 'Airtel Wi-Fi Calling' include all iPhone series starting 6s and above, Xiaomi's Redmi K20, Redmi K20 Pro and POCO F1, Samsung's J6, A10s, On6, M30s, as well as all models of OnePlus 7 Series.

"Airtel is working with all leading smartphone brands to roll out compatibility with 'Airtel Wi-Fi Calling'," the company said.

The service is currently compatible with Airtel Xstream Fiber home broadband and will soon be compatible with all broadband services and Wi-Fi hotspots, it added.