Verizon looks set to begin offering Wi-Fi Calling on supported smartphones after gaining approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The carrier was granted\u00a0the same waiver offered to AT&T in early October.<\/p>\n
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Verizon is the only major carrier in the U.S. that is yet to offer Wi-Fi Calling capabilities. That\u2019s mostly because the FCC has blocked\u00a0it due to its inability to play nicely with the TTY (teletypwriter) technology used by the hearing impaired.<\/p>\n
But after the FCC said last month that AT&T could rollout Wi-Fi Calling without TTY, Verizon requested\u00a0the same conditions \u2014 and was granted them. Big Red can now offer Wi-Fi Calling without TTY until real-time text (RTT), an alternative technology, is ready in 2017.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear\u00a0when\u00a0<\/em>Verizon will rollout Wi-Fi Calling, however; its website promises it will be available \u201cin the future,\u201d but it is yet to be more specific. When AT&T was granted its waiver, it took the company just a few days to start offering Wi-Fi Calling on selected devices.<\/p>\n Hopefully Verizon can deliver the technology just a quickly. Wi-Fi Calling will allow those with a supported smartphone to make and receive calls over a Wi-Fi network when cellular connectivity is poor or unavailable. AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile already offer the feature in the U.S.<\/p>\n