BT’s latest acquisition, EE, has launched Britain’s first WiFi calling service to make calls and texts available in every WiFi-connected home – potentially upping the value of homes across the UK.
The new service hopes to help the four million people who say they lose mobile connection in at least one room in their house, with research carried out by ICM on behalf of EE in March 2015 revealing that almost one in ten people have one room or more in their home where they have no mobile connectivity, increasing to 15% for those living in rural and semi-rural areas.
EE’s service differs from over-the-top services that enable calls using WiFi in that sense that WiFi calling from EE uses the phone’s normal dialler and contacts book to make calls and the normal text button to send text messages, without the need for an app.
In addition to helping people across the UK in homes and small/home offices, WiFi calling also has the potential to change the value of homes, with Simon Gerrard, president of the National Association of Estate Agents, saying: “Mobile coverage is becoming increasingly important to people when they’re buying a house – innovations like this can help sellers ensure they are maximising the value of their home and are not losing out due to poor mobile coverage.”
Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE, said: “Losing coverage at home is a major frustration, and WiFi Calling will make a real difference to millions of customers across the UK, from basement flats in London to the most rural homes in the country.
“Our customers want to be able to call and text no matter where they are, and they don’t want to have to think about which app they need to use or if their friends have a particular third party service.”
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.
Last month BT acquired mobile network EE for £12.5 billion – the largest mobile network operator in the UK with 31 million customers. EE also has the largest 4G customer base of any operator in Europe.
The BT and EE transaction is subject to approval by the shareholders of BT and merger clearance, in particular from the UK Competition and Markets Authority. It is expected to complete before the end of BT’s 2015/16 financial year.
