Even with a huge chunk of investments coming to the telecom infrastructure in India, there is a lot of wanting for network penetration in sketchy places, much less in transit. There has been a substantial discussion by the leading telcos and telecom regulatory body over concrete solutions to mitigate the inadequacies that remain in the country’s telecom ecosystem. One of the most-sought resorts is Voice over Wi-Fi, or VoWi-Fi, which has been in the pipeline as the next step to make audio calls better.
Reliance Jio kick-started the rollout of next-generation cellular services with VoLTE, which not only upgrades the voice quality to high-definition but offers an Internet-supported framework. The company is now piloting VoWi-Fi services in select circles, as per Telecom Talk. The circles that are now a part of testing are Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Kerala, and more.
The public rollout of VoWi-Fi is not certain as of now but a 2020 timeline is likely.
Folks at Telecom Talk have managed to obtain a screenshot of the iPhone home-screen that shows ‘Jio WiFi’ written next to the network bars. The report says that the VoWi-Fi service will initially be limited to Jio network but other carriers are expected to be on board with the service soon. Airtel and Vodafone Idea earlier confirmed they are testing VoWi-Fi technology in India. Airtel’s Gopal Vittal even clarified that Airtel is in advanced stages.
VoWi-Fi is the calling technology that relies on the wireless network when cellular connectivity is negligible or absent. This helps alleviate network issues in the locations with spotty cellular coverage. It also helps service providers to partner other vendors to roll out Wi-Fi hotspots with required network essentials. With the rollout, the users who live in remote locations or at the areas with poor network coverage will be able to place calls properly.
