How to Make Phone Calls from Web Pages?

You might have seen how you can click a link to dial your phone from your wireless operator's 411 service portal page. But how does this work? Well, the process is really easy, with a special WAP interface known as WTAI.

One of the coolest features in WML is its support for telephony functions known as the Wireless Telephony Applications Interface (WTAI). A Nokia WML browser allows users to make phone calls, send touch tones, and update the phone's Contacts list directly from a web page! Since the mobile phone is still primarily a voice communications tool, the ability to integrate the telephone experience with the web-browsing experience proves to be very useful. You can do that with either specially formatted URLs or WML-Script function calls.

You can "link" to any telephone number via a specially formatted URL from your web page. Once you click that URL, the phone prompts you to make a call to the specified phone number. The URL can be embedded in a or a element in your WML, XHTML MP, or plain HTML pages. The following example shows an XHTML MP page with a phone call link:

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The number +15555551234 after the wtai://wp/mc; string in the URL specifies the phone number. You can use any phone number format that your phone and wireless operator can understand.

When you click the link and confirm the message, a call to the specified number is initiated. Once the call is connected, the phone goes back to the browser and you can continue browsing while staying on the phone. The small phone icon at the top-right corner of the last screen indicates that a voice call is in progress. Although the screen-shots are taken from a Series 60 device, the process is similar on Series 40 devices. On a Series 40 device, you are given an additional choice to quit the browser before the call is initiated.

If you are browsing over a GPRS connection, the connection is suspended while the phone call is active.