Virgin Media today unveiled SmartCall, the UK’s first WiFi calling service that allows customers to use the unlimited calls from their home phone talk plan on their smartphone – whether at home, at a friend’s, or even abroad.
As long as there’s a WiFi connection, SmartCall will give people the freedom to use their Virgin Phone inclusive calls on smartphones, regardless of wherever they are and no matter which mobile operator they use.
The intuitive app will automatically detect whether a SmartCall is possible and whether that call is included in their home phone talk plan. This even includes phoning the UK from abroad, so holidaymakers could wave au revoir to the shock of roaming call charges or hefty hotel phone bills.
Virgin Media recently completed extensive technical trials of SmartCall and will now open this service up to select customers on an exclusive basis in the coming weeks, before making it available to all Virgin Phone customers in early 2013.
Virgin Media is also introducing a new talk plan which, for the first time in the UK, will include unlimited calls to all UK mobiles. Combined with SmartCall, the new plan will help customers make considerable savings and get even greater value from their phones.
Graeme Oxby, Virgin Media’s executive director of mobile and home phone, said: “SmartCall will stretch the home telephone cord all the way to wherever you might be, whether in a coffee shop in Cornwall or on a beach in Bali. All you need is a home phone from us, a smartphone and a WiFi connection. This groundbreaking service will give customers even more fantastic value from their phones and is also another example of how technology can make our lives easier. Virgin Media is best placed to provide the greatest value converged telephone services as the distinction between staying connected in and out of the home blurs and as we look for more ways to give our customers more.”
Earlier this year Virgin Media introduced a Line Rental Saver by which customers could save even more. For a one-off up-front price of £120, when paid in advance by debit or credit card, customers can get an entire year of home phone, saving £46.80.
Virgin Media is the first provider of all four broadband, TV, mobile phone and home phone services in the UK.
The company delivers ultrafast broadband connections to over half of all UK homes, with speeds of up to 120Mb, and is expanding this cable network – the result of a multi-billion pound investment – to reach thousands more people across the country.
Virgin Media has developed the most advanced interactive television service, bringing together broadcast TV, thousands of hours of on demand programming and the best of the web in a single set-top box powered by TiVo. The company was the first to offer HD TV and 3D on demand to millions of UK households.
Virgin Media also operates the most popular virtual mobile network in the UK which, when launched, was the world’s first such mobile phone service. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country.
Virgin Media Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange (VMED).