AirSatOne certifies Wi-Fi calling

AirSatOne has certified its network for compatibility with Wi-Fi Calling, a new feature now offered by all major U.S., and some international, cell phone carriers. With Wi-Fi calling passengers and flight crew can use their own smart phone for phone calls and text messaging on business jets during all phases of flight. “With Wi-Fi Calling, when the mobile phone loses cellular coverage but Wi-Fi is available, it automatically switches to Wi-Fi for calls and text messages, allowing the phone to work the same as it does every day on the ground,” explains Jo Kremsreiter, President of AirSatOne.

Wi-Fi Calling is a standard feature baked in to a smart phone’s operating software which means there is no need to install third-party applications and the phone uses the same cellular number when connected to a Wi-Fi network. Wi-Fi calling also automatically transfers in-progress calls from cellular to Wi-Fi and provides the same user experience and services including texting, call waiting, and multi-party calling. Kremsreiter reports that “testing of Wi-Fi Calling over AirSatOne systems has revealed extremely clear voice and virtually no background noise”.

Customers using AirSatOne as their Satcom provider can immediately tap into Wi-Fi Calling. No hardware or software installation is required and there is no charge for Wi-Fi Calling access through AirSatOne’s network, although standard Satcom data usage and cellular provider voice charges do apply to Wi-Fi calls.

Built in smartphone Wi-Fi Calling uses a technology called Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) which is an audio codec with compression optimized for speech coding. AMR-WB supports dynamic adaptation to network conditions using lower bit rates during network congestion or degradation while preserving audio quality. This means that a smartphone with Wi-Fi calling makes adjustments based on the Wi-Fi network it is connected to. Because aircraft Satcom systems have limited bandwidth, when the AMR software detects this, calls are automatically adjusted to a lower bit rate to fit through the pipe which also uses less data.