Some time ago I decided to change my old apartment in the center of the most important city of Asturias, for a house with a garden in a small Asturian town, away from almost everything. This has a huge number of advantages, but also some disadvantages such as the lack of coverage inside the house that makes every time I want to talk on the phone I have to go out to do it, something that on cold and rainy days is really uncomfortable.
Luckily a few days ago I called the customer service of my mobile phone operator to consult various aspects, and in which they sincerely treated me very kindly, asking me if I still had the same coverage problems about which they already had spoken several times. It was then that I was recommended to use the WiFi calls about which today we are going to talk and learn very interesting information about them.
What are WiFi calls?
Despite the fact that many people associate the term WiFi calls with that of the calls made available to us by the different instant messaging applications, they are two totally different terms. And is that WiFi calls allow us, for example, to receive a call taking advantage of our WiFi connection, even if we do not have mobile coverage.
Unfortunately, at the moment this type of call is not available on all mobile devices on the market and not all mobile phone operators allow access to this interesting resource, which becomes essential for users who have little or no coverage in our home.
In addition to making calls, through the WiFi network of our home or work, despite not having coverage, we can also send SMS. Of course, it is important to make it clear that both calls and text messages are charged in the same way as any other call. If you have a rate with unlimited calls, you should not worry at any time, but if for example you have a bonus of minutes, you must adjust to that number of minutes despite using the WiFi calling service.
These are the mobile operators with support for WiFi calls
As we said before Not only is it necessary to have a compatible mobile device, but also our mobile phone operator must give us support for this type of call.. Next, we are going to review the main operators in our country, to find out whether or not we can benefit from this increasingly popular service.
Orange
The operator of French origin was one of the first to offer WiFi calls to its users, as long as they have some of the postpaid rates. Unfortunately the number of compatible terminals is very small at the moment and we only find the iPhone 5c, 5s, 6 or 6s, in addition to the iPhone 7 that have only been on the market for a few days. As far as Android is concerned, only the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S7 and S7 Edge purchased in Orange offer us the possibility of using WiFi calls.
On the Orange website we can find a large amount of information about this service, and also a small manual to activate it on compatible terminals;
amena
The green company is owned by Orange, and stands out for its low cost rates, using the coverage of the French operator. In the case of WiFi calls, for now They are only operational for smartphones with iOS operating system, from 5c.
The small problem that can arise for many Amena users is that they only have a mobile phone rate contracted, so they will not be able to access WiFi calls in any way.
Movistar
The WiFi calling service in Movistar is available through the Tu de Movistar application, which is available for download through Google Play, the App Store or the official Windows 10 Mobile application store.
This service is available for prepaid and postpaid lines, being able to associate our phone number with up to 5 mobile devices.
Tuenti
Tuenti is one of the few mobile phone operators, known as virtual, that offers its users the WiFi calling service, through the rates of VozDigital. To be able to make this type of call, simply install the Tuenti application on our mobile device and activate the option to receive calls only through VozDigital.
In addition, and on a positive side, the list of compatible devices is quite extensive and it is enough to have an iPhone 4s or any higher, or a terminal with Android 4.0 or higher and a 1Ghz or higher processor and 512MB of RAM. You can check HERE the complete list of devices compatible with Tuenti WiFi calls.
The future of WiFi calling
As you have seen, most of the large mobile phone operators with a presence in Spain have begun to offer their users the service of WiFi calls. Some like Orange allow you to use it without having to install a mobile application, which is undoubtedly a blessing. Unfortunately and unlike Movistar, only a few smartphones will be able to make use of this interesting service.
WiFi calls can be really interesting, since it can get us out of more than one trouble or, as in my case, it allows me to make calls from my home, without freezing in winter. In the coming months we will surely see how Orange or Movistar greatly improves this service, and how Vodafone also begins to offer this type of calls, of which at the moment there is no trace in the red company.
Have you ever used the WiFi calls that more and more operators are beginning to offer?. Tell us in the space reserved for comments on this post or through any of the social networks in which we are present.
There is nothing at all about Movistar Spain?