We’ve all been there — doing the “signal dance.” You know the gestures — leaning far out of a window, standing on one leg at one end of the kitchen, or walking out to the balcony just to hear that person at the other end. Cellular reception is finicky, easily blocked by concrete, steel, and interference. But BSNL has now come up with an answer that covers every circle in India, rendering the cell tower a redundant piece of equipment: Wi-Fi Calling.
The Science of ‘VoWiFi’
This magical technology is called Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi), and it’s a godsend for anyone suffering from a weak signal. To make sense of it, imagine your voice call as a letter. Historically, you (the sender) give this letter to your phone (the postman), which hands it off to the nearest cell tower, which then sends it to the network. If the cell tower is too far away or there’s a thick wall between you and the postman can’t reach you. The letter never gets sent, or the call is dropped.
Wi-Fi calling opens a new road for the postman. Your phone doesn’t bother calling out to a distant cell tower. Instead, it turns your voice into data packets sent through your home Wi-Fi router. These packets travel across the internet and enter the telecom network from the back.
Why BSNL’s Move is Significant
Private players such as Jio and Airtel have had this feature for a while, but BSNL’s rollout is significant given its user base. BSNL frequently provides service to places where the signal is spotty — far-flung villages, government housing blocks teeming with residents, and decades-old buildings with thick walls that act as Faraday cages (shields that block signals).
With this, for every circle (telecom region), all the Wi-Fi routers will become mini BSNL towers. If you are in a windowless basement in Delhi or a thatched-roof hut in Kerala, as long as there is Wi-Fi — the signal strength throughout the country’s cities and countryside seems consistently strong — then you have full bars. The best part? A separate app like WhatsApp isn’t necessary. You place a call the same way you do with your regular phone dialer, and when the cellular signal is weak, the device switches to Wi-Fi.
Seamless Handovers
The beauty of the new VoWiFi is the handover.” If you’re on a call in your house via Wi-Fi. You head to the car through the front door. As the Wi-Fi signal attenuates, the phone automatically switches to the cellular network’s signal and adjusts the call without terminating it. It happens in milliseconds.
Setting It Up
If you simply want a casual power user, this is as good an ‘install and forget’ option. Unbeknownst to you (likely under Mobile Data or SIM Card settings), there’s a toggle that reads “Wi-Fi Calling.” Once you flip that switch, your phone takes care of the rest. You’ll know it’s working when you see a small icon in your status bar: typically a telephone handset with Wi-Fi waves. That’s a small icon, but for millions of users it represents a huge leap in whether their connections will be reliable.
