EE UK Launch New Smart Number Mobile Technology

Mobile operator EE today claims to have become the first in the United Kingdom to launch smart number technology, which they say gives customers the ability to make and receive calls and texts using the same number across multiple devices and all “at no extra cost“.

The service appears to make use of the new Wi-Fi Calling feature that operators have been gradually rolling out over the past year. By harnessing this customers can extend their phone number to 5 other connected devices which are internet connected with either WiFi (e.g. via a public hotspot or your home broadband ISP) or mobile data (3G / 4G) connectivity.

The primary device (Smartphone) needs to be on EE, although the other devices do not need to be. If they are made or received on a device with access to EE’s network, the calls will be taken out of their voice allowance. We can already do something similar with Skype and other VoIP solutions, although being able to use your mobile number in this way would be handy.

Max Taylor, EE’s MD of Marketing, said:

“We’ve made it our mission to give our customers amazing new technologies that make the most of our award-winning network to help keep them connected, wherever they go and whatever they want to do. Our new smart number technology is a great example of how we’re helping customers to seamlessly connect their favourite devices – whether on laptops, tablets or smartwatches, even if they’re away from their smartphone.”

At present there is one early disadvantage to the new service and EE’s claim that customers can use it to “make and receive calls across their tablets, watches and laptops,” which centres around the issue of hardware support. At launch it will only be available to Apple devices (e.g. iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and the Apple Watch), although Android compatible devices will follow “at a later date.”

In the meantime customers will need to be on a EE Pay Monthly plan for their smartphone and have iOS 11.3 on an iPhone 6 or later. Paired iPads will need to be on iOS 10 (or later) and OS X El Capitan or later is required for Macs.