In 2009, a number of leading telecom companies jointly developed a technical profile to provide voice and SMS services over the all-IP LTE network. The technical specifications are included in the document IR.92 by the GSMA in order to consolidate the LTE services and are based on the existing 3GPP standards. Today, Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is the most talked about application of the entire LTE mobile network in the global telecom industry.
In a nutshell, Voice over LTE technology harnesses the excellent data capabilities of LTE and combines them on the same network with traditional voice services. VoLTE is similar to popular OTT service, VoIP in few aspects but is much better in many ways.
The fundamental difference, is that VoIP applications rely on Internet delivery of packets which can be a very “hit-or-miss” system. Anybody who’s used Skype and Google Voice has most likely experienced their fair share of dropped calls due to “lost packets” that don’t ever make it to the cloud.
VoLTE however, uses a unique IP Multimedia Subsystem and circuit switch technology outlined below, to deliver voice service with the potential to outshine even the highest quality of telecommunication in the 21st century.
Voice Over 3G and LTE Networks
Source: TechNavio Analysts
Circuit switched voice services have a long way to go before becoming ubiquitous however, and the transition from today’s VoIP packet-switched networks to VoLTE will take many years. In order to support VoLTE, telecom operators need to have a tight integration across the network. User terminals, radio access network, evolved packet core, IMS based core network services must be aligned for the service to function, which is more difficult to achieve than it sounds. That said, the past few years have seen major leaps in the VoLTE revolution.
Since the technology first hit radar in 2009, a number of progressive pilot projects have been underway. The telecom operators with CDMA legacy network were the first one to incline towards the VoLTE networks, leaving behind conventional services. Shortly after, operators with presence in UMTS domain began simultaneously running VoLTE trials with retain UMTS services. Three years later in 2012, field trials were conducted for VoLTE SRVCC along with designing VoLTE compatible user terminal with power efficient features, and the results were ground-breaking.
Several VoLTE SRVCC networks are expected to launch during 2013-2014. It is speculated that by 2014, we will see VoLTE supported LTE networks in a full swing, with the number of connections across the globe hovering around 72 million by 2016. Despite this colossal figure however, the number of VoLTE connections will remain just a fraction of OTT VoIP connections during the next five years or so. Nevertheless, by the end of this decade, mobile telecom operators, network providers, and consumers should be poised for a global transition towards VoLTE: the higher quality, richer, and more effective future of LTE technology.
For more information, view our 2012-2016 report on The Global VoLTE Market 2012-2016.
