EE launches Wifi Calling service: From Friday you can make calls and send texts on the Tube (but so can everyone else)
This is either the best thing since sliced bread or the worst news of the year.
From Friday, you will be able to make phone calls on the Tube. While that's great news for anyone who's ever got stuck on the Central/Northern/District/all the other lines, it also means you can wave goodbye to the one place in London where you wouldn't be interrupted with details of someone else's day.
EE is launching a service enabling its users to make calls and send texts in any Wifi-available home, office – or transport.
Unlike “over the top” services that enable calls using Wifi, this service uses the phone's normal dialler and contacts books to make calls and normal text buttons to send messages. There's no app and it's not dependent on a closed user group service.
But there is bad news if you're on EE but have an iPhone: WiFi Calling will initially launch for the Lumia 640 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6Edge users, though it is expected to roll out to five million customers by the summer.
Wifi has been available on the Tube since 2012.
EE's chief executive Olaf Swantee said: “WiFi Calling will make a real difference to millions of customers across the UK, from basement flats in London to the most rural homes in the country. Our customers want to be able to call and text no matter where they are, and they don’t want to have to think about which app they need to use or if their friends have a particular third party service.”