Vodafone announced earlier in the year that Wi-Fi Calling would be coming to its network and Voda has now confirmed it: the service has been activated.

That means that eligible Vodafone customers will be able to make and receive calls over Wi-Fi rather than having to be connected to the cellular network. That means that those in poor reception areas will now get voice calls and messages where they once might have not. You'll also be able to make calls on London Underground platforms.

Vodafone has confirmed that those on the Red, Red Value or Red+ Bundle are all eligible for the service and there's no additional charge, with the calls coming out of whatever talk plan you might already have. 

There's a catch, however.

To use the service you'll need a compatible handset and Vodafone hasn't yet confirmed which handsets will be supported. We've asked Vodafone if customers will be able to use the service today and we're awaiting a response.

This is where things can get a little confusing, because you'll probably need a device that's from Vodafone so it has the software onboard that will allow you to use the Wi-Fi Calling service. This was the same situation we encountered when EE launched its Wi-Fi Calling service in April, but we're yet to have final confirmation for Vodafone.

Many devices include Wi-Fi Calling - it's a feature of iOS 8 for example - so if you have a recent iPhone 6 then it will probably work. We've also used Wi-Fi Calling on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Lumia 640 on EE's equivalent service, so we suspect there will be support for recently-launched handsets.

The good thing is that you don't need an additional app for the service. It's integrated and seamless, although you'll have to switch it on in the settings of the device for it to work. Once enabled you don't need to do anything, just make and receive calls as normal.

Vodafone has said it will be telling us more about eligible devices soon and we'll update as soon as we know. If you've managed to get onto the service, please let us now in the comments below!