Voice over LTE (VoLTE), an IMS based specification which can integrate into suite of applications, was formally introduced in February 2010 by GSM association and has been aligned with 3GPP standard. It has been developed by collaboration amongst over 40 operators including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Alcatel-Lucent, and device makers like Nokia. This new technology complements LTE by adding voice communications over the same network. It eliminates the apprehensions of LTE just being used for mobile broadband over IP framework, and operators have to return to 2G/ 3G systems for enabling voice communications. VoLTE materialized from the operators' (who support LTE) realization to have a viable and standardized scheme for voice and SMS traffic because 80% of revenue is pegged from these 2 services.
VoLTE is beneficial for operators and user expectations. It enables operators to facilitate the most lucrative applications-voice and SMS service over LTE networks. It assists operators in evolving voice services towards a rich multimedia offering and thereby helps to grow communications business. Users can enjoy rich multimedia services, available anywhere on any device. It also combines mobility with service continuity to provide users with high-quality experience. VoLTE will more possibly facilitate the development of interconnect and international roaming agreements among LTE operators.
Majority of Indian telcos are planning to go ahead with LTE technology for their mobile broadband plans. Once the technology is deployed on a large scale, operators will certainly benefit from voice over LTE. Its growth is directly proportional to the growth of LTE. Operators are gearing up for 4G on LTE technology in many parts of the world, and voice services have become a challenge. And it is more to do with changing standards and compatibility with other global networks. Currently, VoLTE is perceived as an issue and it has to be enabled to work between various networks specifically in the global roaming use case. As operators have planned diligently for next generation 4G technology that boosts mobile internet, they are very conscious and trying to avoid mistakes done by many fixedline operators. A few fixed operators had some bottlenecks with the deployment of high-speed broadband networks, whereas some service providers could quickly flourish by delivering voice over top of fixed broadband networks. Several fixed operators were slow to bring out competitive VoIP offers.
Mavenir Systems in May 2011 launched the availability of VoLTE for deploying voice and messaging services over LTE. International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium tested VoLTE in June 2011 at a trade show called SuperOp in Kona, Hawaii. And Huawei provided the infrastructure for the demo.
VoLTE will enable operators to leverage growing investment in low-cost voice core. It will help in adding telephony revenues quickly to LTE investment. This concept will elevate an operator's existing core voice network to act as a packet service delivered over the LTE access network. This technology has a minimal impact on handset manufactures and operators need not wait for years for viable handsets to begin loading network. Because LTE voice is identical to the existing voice services of 3G and 2G networks which de-risks a large portion of the handset development. 4G technology on LTE would be a failure if 2G/3G subscribers do not enjoy the call feature once they upgrade to 4G.
Malini N
malinin@cybermedia.co.in
Page(s) 1
Print
Comment
Email
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
