GigaOM » voice over LTE

Samsung outs Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet with voice over LTE support

Kevin C. Tofel — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:03:44 +0000

Samsung already offers a Galaxy Note 10.1 Android tablet with Wi-Fi support and now its adding an LTE model. The slate will arrive in Korea with a launch on three different carrier networks, according to Akihabara News. This isn’t the first tablet to include an integrated LTE radio for fast mobile broadband connections, but it does have one key advantage over competing tablets: support for Voice over LTE or VoLTE.

Samsung Tomorrow points out that the new Galaxy Note will be available on Nov. 23 and be similar to the current Note 10.1 model: a 1280 x 800 display, Android 4.1 with Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface, 1.4 GHz processor, 2 GB of memory and 7,000 mAh battery. Just like my Galaxy Note 2 smartphone, the tablet will support dual-app multitasking with two applications running at the same time on the display. The tablet also has the same S-Pen functionality with the ability to hover over the display for navigation functions.

The biggest development here is the support for VoLTE and that’s also why the device is launching in a country-specific region. Here in the U.S., for example, we have two national LTE networks available with two more in progress. But none of the top four carriers yet support VoLTE. In Korea, the function is available and will let Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE owners make voice calls over the data networks without losing access to other data services, for example. Voice becomes just another form of data in this scenario, turning the tablet into a slate for content creation, consumption and a wide range of communications.

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Voice over LTE now ‘ready for widespread commercial deployment’

David Meyer — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:41:07 +0000

The path to all-LTE networks just got cleared up a bit. After Qualcomm and Ericsson announced the handover of a voice call from the ’4G’ standard to 3G back in February, Huawei and T-Mobile Austria – and Qualcomm again – have revealed a much smoother transition that should actually lead to commercial deployment this time.

Why is this important? Because LTE has only seen a patchy deployment so far. The networks know how to do all-IP Voice over LTE (VoLTE), but that’s of limited use if the call dies as soon as the user steps out of LTE coverage. VoLTE only makes sense if the users can continue the call while switching between network types, without noticing.

It’s a virtuous circle. Once VoLTE becomes viable for operators, phone manufacturers can start building their phones around it. Gradually, they will be able to stop putting 2G and even 3G voice capabilities into their handsets, which will make it viable for operators to turn off those old technologies and reuse the spectrum for 4G.

And it’s the smoothness of the handover that’s crucial here. The demonstration back in February used a technology called Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC), and involved a pause of more than a second while the call was handed over. This time we’re talking the enhanced version of that tech – eSRVCC – and the pause is less than 300ms.

Huawei actually announced a successful test of eSRVCC a month ago, but this latest work with T-Mobile Austria took place in the field, rather than in a lab.

“Our successful pilot project showed that not only rapid data transfer, but also Voice over LTE technology is ready for widespread commercial use,” T-Mobile Austria CTO Rüdiger Köster said in a statement.

The company added that voice quality should see a boost from the switch to VoLTE, too.

So, when are we going to see that widespread commercial use in Europe? According to a Huawei spokesperson, that depends on how long it takes manufacturers to make their handsets VoLTE ready, but the aim is for the end of 2013.

Incidentally, this development may help put into context some of the changes about to hit MetroPCS’s VoLTE play in the U.S. As Kevin has noted, T-Mobile intends to do away with MetroPCS’s CDMA system and is sounding pretty cool on that carrier’s existing VoLTE implementation.

T-Mobile will be rolling out its own LTE services in the U.S. in late 2013, and it sounds like that timing will gel quite nicely with its adoption of eSRVCC.

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New solutions for the evolving mobile network

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:31:41 +0000

Cisco’s VNI graph shows mobile data growing 18 times over the next five years, and it makes a strong case for the need of mobile networks to evolve to reflect the transition from voice- to data-centric usage models. Yet to make these fundamental changes in operating networks, it is crucial to move beyond compelling graphics and understand what requirements new usage models impose on the network infrastructure. To successfully address the increase in data traffic, operators need to act on multiple fronts, because no single solution will be sufficient in isolation.

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Mobile 2012 and beyond

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 06:55:31 +0000

Few industries change at the pace mobile does. Whether it’s the iPhone 5, the importance of LTE, or BYOD trends disrupting the enterprise, there are always new technologies, trends, and companies changing the way we define mobile. Here, GigaOM Pro highlights a few segments of the mobile industry that will be important to watch in the coming months, from location-based shopping to wireless networks, and new business models for carriers.

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MetroPCS enters the VoIP age. Who will be next?

Kevin Fitchard — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 22:05:10 +0000

MetroPCS has been gunning to be the first out of the gate with a voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) service, and this week it didn’t disappoint. It’s first VoIP handset, the LG Connect 4G, went on sale in Dallas on Tuesday, making it the first carrier to combine its voice, messaging and internet services onto a single all-IP network.

There’s some debate over whether Metro was the first global operator to get to VoLTE. Both SK Telecom and Uplus kicked off VoLTE in Korea on Wednesday, which due to time zones differences was Tuesday in the US. But there’s no doubt that what MetroPCS has accomplished is a milestone for a US mobile industry that has routed its calls over circuit switches since its inception.

The question now is who’s next? MetroPCS had a fire burning under its rear, which drove it to move everything it could to IP as quickly as possible. MetroPCS uses the same spectrum for both its 2G CDMA and 4G LTE networks. That meant every megahertz it devoted to supporting old-school circuit-switched calls was one less megahertz it could use to bolster its much more spectrally efficient LTE network.

Leap Wireless faces a similar issue, but it’s been far less aggressive with LTE and has a 3G network to pick up the data slack. Meanwhile, the big operators are deploying their LTE networks over largely untouched airwaves, so they face far less pressure to recycle their old spectrum.

That doesn’t mean, though, they’re not feeling some pressure. By using VoIP, voice no longer becomes a siloed service. Carriers can overlay a voice call with other IP services such as video chat, multimedia sharing and presence. Called Rich Communications Suite (RCS), this communications layer is the operators’ answer to the over-the-top services that are eating away at their voice and SMS revenues. Let’s take a look at each carrier’s stated plans and unstated motivations, one by one:

Verizon: Big Red may very well be the first Tier I carrier to move to VoIP, not because it needs to, but simply because it can. By year end Verizon will have an LTE footprint covering 230 million people, meaning its customers will be able to receive a 4G signal in most populated areas of the country.

Verizon has already said it plans to launch its first VoIP-powered LTE phones this year, but unlike Metro it’s facing no pressure to shut down to its CDMA networks and harvest their spectrum. Instead Verizon will focus on enhanced VoIP services targeting enterprise customers. According to CTO Tony Melone, in 2013 Verizon’s network will be so widespread it will be able to sell its first phones without CDMA chips.

AT&T:Ma Bell’s LTE network may not be as extensive as its Verizon’s but it has a technical advantage its archrival can’t claim. As a GSM operator, AT&T can take advantage of circuit-switched fallback, a standard that allows IP calls to revert to circuit-switched calls when customers leave the LTE network. For Verizon, venturing out from under the LTE umbrella means a dropped call (MetroPCS has the same problem).

AT&T has stated it will offer a VoIP-based service in 2013, but AT&T can launch VoLTE anytime it pleases without worrying about whether it has nationwide, or even citywide, coverage. Customers won’t be able to take their enhanced IP services with them onto the 2G and 3G networks, but at least their voice conversations will accompany them.

In an SEC filing last week, AT&T said it plans to sunset its 2G GSM network in five years – a process it has already started in New York. But even with its primary voice network scheduled for retirement, AT&T isn’t facing any increased pressure to move to VoLTE. AT&T’s 3G networks support voice as well.

Sprint: The country’s No. 3 operator also plans to have VoLTE online in 2013, though it’s actually already running a 2G and 3G VoIP service today in the from of Sprint Direct Connect push-to-talk. Sprint’s LTE network only went live last month so it has a long expansion road ahead before it seriously considers VoLTE. But of all the major carriers it has the most incentive to move voice to its IP networks. Like MetroPCS Sprint is using the same band, PCS, for its 4G, 3G and 2G networks. The faster it gets to VoLTE the sooner it can start shutting down CDMA and refarm that spectrum for LTE.

T-Mobile: T-Mobile is still a year away from launching LTE so you would think it VoLTE would be the last thing on its mind. But T-Mobile is also a very crafty carrier that has shown it can use technology to overcome its limited resources. T-Mobile is deploying LTE on the same band it uses for its HSPA+ network, which after its system-wide reconfiguration will become its primary voice network. If it aggressively pursues VoIP when it launches, it could start shifting its Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum from HSPA+ to LTE, which would in turn clear up more room for LTE.

Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock user Shawn Hempel

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