AT&T says it will roll out WiFi Calling for Android in 2015

Telecommunications site LightRead reports that AT&T is committing to supporting WiFi Calling for its subscribers beginning sometime in 2015. The feature allows subscribers to carry voice calls over their home or office WiFi connection, for instance, when the cellular network may be poor in strength.

Speaking Friday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, he said the carrier would use WiFi calling in 2015, but only as a complement to voice-over-LTE and 3G voice. […]

“We’re very focused on making sure it’s a great experience for customers, but we see it as a complement, not a replacement,” he said. “We feel good about a great nationwide network with unlimited talk and text.”

The ability to carry voice phone calls over is already supported by Android on certain handsets, but requires carrier support to function.

T-Mobile leveraged the feature at its Uncarrier 7.0 event earlier this week with its “WiFi Unleashed” campaign. For its part, T-Mobile has committed to supporting the feature on all of its devices sold going forward including lower end devices.

AT&T’s delay seems to focus on ensuring that calls can reliably transition from WiFi-based calls back to traditional cellular-based calls.