Vodafone customers throughout the UK will be able to make and receive calls via wi-fi soon, without the need for an app and with no limitations on who they can call, as the telecom rolls out nationwide wi-fi calling.

Wi-fi calling eliminates many of the problems with cellular signal, enabling customers to make calls from isolated rural areas, deep within buildings or even while on the London Underground, as long as they are connected to wi-fi.

The service will roll out to Vodafone customers nationwide over the next few weeks, and will be available for no additional charge on a number of leading smartphones.

“Our wi-fi calling service allows customers to talk to loved ones, friends and colleagues for longer and in many more places,” said Cindy Rose, consumer director for Vodafone UK. “It is easy to use and doesnt cost a penny more. It works wherever a customer is connected to wi-fi, in a café, at home or the office, and automatically connects just like a normal call when a mobile signal is weak or non-existent.”

The rollout of wi-fi calling is the latest in a number of steps Vodafone has taken to improve its voice network, including the nationwide provision of HD Voice technology, the introduction of 4G+ and the Vodafone Rural Open Sure Signal program, that aims to give remote communities mobile coverage for the first time.

The company has invested £2bn in bringing stronger indoor and outdoor network coverage to communities and businesses over the course of the last two years, and has seen 4G coverage extended to 626 cities, towns and districts, giving over 70 per cent of the population access to 4G.