Wi-Fi calling has become a big deal in 2014. T-Mobile dedicated an entire Un-leashed event to it and Sprint began rolling out the feature back in February. That leaves AT&T and Verizon without the feature, though AT&T recently revealed that it plans to rollout the feature in 2015. Now Verizon has given us details on its own Wi-Fi calling plans.
Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo said today that his big red carrier will launch Wi-Fi calling functionality in mid-2015. Shammo gave several reasons for the lengthy delay for Verizon’s Wi-Fi calling debut, saying that he doesn’t feel that it’s a “top priority” because Verizon’s cellular calling capabilities are strong. He went on to explain that it’s tough for Verizon to guarantee call quality over Wi-Fi, and since Verizon wants to be known for its call quality, it wants to make sure that it can guarantee strong Wi-Fi calling before launching the feature.
Verizon is currently focusing on its Advanced Calling 1.0 functionality, which uses Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and other features to offer improved voice calls. Ol’ Red has long touted itself as having the strongest network of any US carrier, and so it’s no surprise to hear that it wants to continue to focus on its own network quality rather than roll out Wi-Fi calling, which some could see as an admission that Verizon’s network isn’t as great as it says it is in some places.
Via FierceWireless
