The FCC today granted Verizon Wireless’ request for a waiver that will allow it to offer WiFi calling services.
The waiver is needed because TTY services, which carriers are obligated to offer, are not reliable over WiFi. As such, Verizon needs to replace TTY with real-time text (RTT) in order to remain compliant with the law.
The waiver gives Verizon latitude to offer WiFi calling while cooking up a permanent replacement for TTY. Verizon filed its request Oct. 23. The FCC took much longer to grant a similar request from AT&T, which launched WiFi calling in October.
Verizon didn’t say how soon it expects to offer WiFi calling.
