T-Mobile Intros Wi-Fi Calling To Android Smartphones

T-Mobile USA is making Wi-Fi Calling available for Android smartphones, including its new myTouch and Motorola's Defy and Motoblur models, for both business and consumer customers.

T-Mobile on Wednesday said it is expanding the availability of its Wi-Fi Calling to Android smartphones, giving those devices the ability to make voice calls and send SMS from 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi access points in addition to through the T-Mobile mobile network.

Wi-Fi Calling is the T-Mobile's way of making it possible to make calls over Wi-Fi networks in addition to the normal mobile phone network. The primary advantage to customers is the ability to get better mobile phone coverage when inside buildings or near other areas where Wi-Fi is available than they might get via the mobile phone network.

While T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling feature does not incur extra costs above customers' current mobile phone plans, calls made using Wi-Fi Calling still count against the user's rate plan minutes.

While T-Mobile is just this week starting to make Wi-Fi Calling available for Android-based smartphones, the feature has been available for other platforms for some time, T-Mobile said.

Next: Expanding Wi-Fi Calling Capabilities

The company introduced Wi-Fi Calling in mid-2007, and is already hosting about 40 million Wi-Fi calls per month.

In addition to the Android smartphones, T-Mobile also offers Wi-Fi Calling on other mobile devices including the Nokia E73 Mode, BlackBerry Curve 8520, BlackBerry Bold 9700, and the BlackBerry Curve 3G. The company plans to expand the capability to other Android-based smartphones over the next few months.

The T-Mobile myTouch is expected to be available by this year's holiday season.