How WiFi is making you available on call while unavailable on the network

Many of you must have come across a situation when the person you are trying to reach over a phone call, isn’t accessible due to bad coverage area, but when you try WhatsApp call or text, you get through. Well, this alone is enough to understand the importance of WiFi connectivity, under-the-roof.

TRAI has already cleared for VoWiFi and this while giving a chance to WiFi ISPs in the country to earn some additional revenue by offering voice services, besides letting the telcos to offload the spectrum. For consumers, VoWiFi can address the long pending and never-ending concern of indoor connectivity.  In India, fixed line never picked up. After the advent of mobile, users event discontinued their fixed line services, which is why over the past few years we are not seeing fixed line grow. This has made mobile phones the default connectivity mode – indoor or outdoor.

No operator, irrespective which bands, technology, etc., it is using, has been able to provide a fair indoor coverage. We all are challenged with good and reliable indoor coverage. As of now, we are primarily using WhatsApp to make calls over WiFi. It does solve our problem, but may not be the appropriate mode for various reasons, major two are listed below: –

1. Lawful Intercept:  Regulations demand any mode of communication should be accessible to organisations responsible for security of the country. This is to let them monitor suspicious people and intercept their communication for intelligence purposes. WhatsApp is a global platform and we have seen time and again how difficult it has been to get support as and when required. Further, being an OTT application, the current regulatory framework is not applicable to apps like WhatsApp.
2. Interoperability: To be able to use a communication mode agnostically, it should let a user communicate with any network. One can use WhatsApp only to reach out to another WhatsApp user. Even if the app is almost used by all, still the law would consider it a telecom service, if its interoperable, where a user can call to any network or application.

Other regulatory aspects like numbering, KYC, etc., are acquired in a way from the main telecom service that a WhatsApp user is subscribed to. 

While it will take some more time to figure out a regulatory compliant VoWiFi solution made available to users, no one can deny the ease that it brings reaching out to people who are otherwise inaccessible due to bad coverage, etc.

Enterprises can also get benefitted by promoting VoWiFi as the employees could use the application as their extension lines, accessible both on Smartphones and Laptops/Desktops. SMBs can explore this right from the beginning and reduce cost of PBX, etc., So can hotels, hospitals and other such places where PBX is no longer utilised for more than 50% of the usage and the maintenance cost is not justifying the RoI.

Small Cells unfortunately attempted several times to make a push into the market, but never saw a desired uptake. It might be a good alternative to instead create WiFi access points and hotspots, which would improve the indoor coverage and let users not only access for data services, but also make calls. The fact remains, despite of the growth of other modes of communication like Chat, etc., voice still is close to the hearts of Indians and we prefer to have a conversation over a phone than texting, etc.

First published on September 25, 2018 in techRAI