The days of making “just” a phone call with our phones are long gone. Not only do we do the sort of things with our phones now that we used to do with our computers, but the art of making a phone call has gone high-tech. You might have heard of HD voice and WiFi calling, two technologies that most carriers now offer, with WiFi calling being available for free in apps like WhatsApp and such. WiFi calling might seem like a novelty to some, and a nice feature to have when you’re low on signal, but for Republic Wireless customers, it’s a way of life, more or less. That’s because Republic Wireless is a network that relies on WiFi calling to offer a cheaper service, and they use cellular networks to fill in the gaps.
This new “Bonded Calling” that Republic Wireless has rolled out to customers is something that might seem a little confusing, as the network already uses both WiFi and cellular together. However, the term “bonded” refers to the use of both a cellular network and the WiFi network at the same exact time. Rather than switching from one to another, Bonded Calling brings the two together which in turns helps to improve the overall quality of a call. This won’t happen all the time, only when a signal is weak, and Republic Wireless says that an increase of 209% in WiFi call quality happens when at the “edge” of a WiFi network, where the signal is weakest. In general however, a 52% increase in call quality was reported.
Those who are already on Republic Wireless don’t need a new handset or to even upgrade their devices, as this is already handled by existing devices and software. Those that aren’t on Republic Wireless might find it a good alternative for some family members, or even themselves if they’re mostly on WiFi a lot of the time. This might not be a big deal to a lot of users, but this is another way of showing just how good our current network technologies can be when working together.