Commuters will soon be able to make phone calls and receive text messages on the Tube using a new wifi service launching this week.

Underground travellers will be able to use their phones by making calls over the internet, without the need for a specific app.

Called WiFi calling, the service from provider EE will launch this Friday, and is available to customers with Lumia 640 phones and the new Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge.

Other phones, such as the iPhone will get the feature in the coming weeks so that by the summer five million pay monthly customers should be able to call and send texts from most London Underground stations.

A total of 150 stations currently have wifi, which was rolled out in 2012 to coincide with the Olympics.

Rather than using apps like FaceTime of Skype, EE’s new service automatically switches to wifi when there is no signal, when the user calls the contact from the phone in the traditional way.

Source: Standard