Sprint Corp. announced on Friday that it now allows its users make a call through Wi-Fi using selected smartphones.
"It's not uncommon for customers to experience mobile network coverage issues within their home, apartment or office building due to materials interfering with the Sprint network," said Sprint in a blog post.
Therefore, for its subscribers who experience poor coverage and go to places outside of Sprint's coverage, Sprint has developed a service that will surely address the issues -- Wi-Fi Calling. However, as of the moment, only owners of Samsung Galaxy Mega and Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini will have access to and experience the service.
Wi-Fi Calling simply means placing a call through an internal Wi-Fi network.
In the next days, the Kansas-bases telecommunications company is going to launch an update that will make Wi-Fi Calling possible. With the update, its subscribers will experience improved voice, messaging, and data services in areas that have no or limited mobile coverage. The improvement will be included in over-the-air update smartphones. However, while the process of the installation of the update is ongoing, users can't make calls for a minute or two.
Once the download and installation are complete, the user must activate Wi-Fi Calling first by going to the Apps folder and selecting the Wi-Fi calling icon before using the service. After the activation, Sprint users can then enjoy the benefit of enhanced coverage, make unlimited domestic calls and send unlimited messages through Wi-Fi. However, standard CDMA international rates will be applied for international calls.
According to PC World, such offer is not the first in the telecommunications industry. In 2010, T-Mobile launched the same service, which is pretty pervasive throughout its network. However the minutes of calls you made through it are counted against your minutes. However now, most plans are offering unlimited minutes as part of their services.
