U.S. mobile carrier AT&T recently asked the Federal Communications Commission to grant a waiver to enable Wi-Fi calling. Now, Verizon Wireless has done the same in asking the FCC to allow Wi-Fi calling on its network. For those who don’t know what Wi-Fi calling is, it was a new feature first introduced in iOS 8. The way the feature works is when mobile signal is low, calls will then automatically route over to Wi-Fi.
The feature apparently breaks TTY protocol for the hearing impaired, therefore it is illegal in the U.S. However, AT&T was able to switch on the feature through a recent waiver. When this happened, AT&T made it very clear that the waiver is required in order to enable the feature and even called out Sprint and T-Mobile for not getting permission in turning on the feature. Verizon on the other hand, took a different stance and does not feel it is required, but doing so is “out of an abundance of caution."
Both Verizon and AT&T are apparently working on a TTY text-chat protocol replacement for the hearing impaired that will work on Wi-Fi as well. If Verizon’s waiver is approved, all smartphone platforms will be able to take advantage of the offering.
Source: FCC
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