A few weeks after Airtel rolled out Wi-Fi calling for its users, Jio has also announced that a similar feature is coming to its users. On Wednesday, Jio said that Wi-Fi calling has started rolling out to its users. The rollout started on January 7, and is going to be completed across India by January 16, said the company. One big difference between Jio’s rollout of Wi-Fi calling for its users, and what Airtel has done, is the level of support. Jio is supporting more handsets — around 150 — and it is supporting Wi-Fi calling through all Wi-Fi networks. Airtel has announced that its Wi-Fi calling feature works only with Wi-Fi powered by Airtel broadband.

Commenting on the new feature for Jio users, Akash Ambani, Director at Jio, said At this juncture, when an average Jio consumer uses over 900 minutes of voice calls every month, and at a growing base of consumers, the launch of Jio Wi-Fi Calling will further enhance every Jio consumer’s voice-calling experience.

Just like Airtel’s Wi-Fi calling, the Wi-Fi calling on Jio network will also be free. Wi-Fi calling is basicallly use of Wi-Fi for calls when the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network, even if the call is made through the regular phone app. When the phone is not connected to Wi-Fi network, the calls will be made using either regular GSM network or through VoLTE.

Jio said that calls made using Wi-Fi calling feature will be free if the call is made within India. For ISD calls, international calling charges will be applicable. “Customers can use any Wi-Fi network for Jio Wi-Fi-calling. The voice and video calls will seamlessly switch-over between VoLTE and Wi-Fi to provide an enhanced voice/video-calling experience,” noted Jio.

In case of both Airtel and Jio, the Wi-Fi calling feature will help users save data, as well potentially may result in crisper and more reliable calls even if the cellular connectivity is weak. Jio said that to use the Wi-Fi calling, users will have to enable it first on their phone by going into the phone settings.