Telstra yesterday launched voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) to its postpaid customers, making it the first Australian operator to offer the service, which it dubbed ‘4G Calling’.
Mike Wright (pictured), Telstra’s group managing director of networks, told Mobile World Live that the new voice service is available on compatible devices across its 4G footprint, which now reaches 94 per cent of the population and will cover 99 per cent by 2017.
He said the VoLTE rollout will be staggered, starting with 4G to 4G calls, then moving to full HD capability for 4G to fixed and 4G to 3G calls. It plans to extend the VoLTE capability to its business and enterprise customers as well as its prepaid customers, but he didn’t give a timeframe.
The first VoLTE-enabled devices include the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Sony Mobile’s latest Xperia smartphones.
Wright said that the move to VoLTE isn’t mainly about voice quality improvement, but the potential for the future and customer experience. “We’ve already got HD voice; we’ve had it for quite a number of years across our entire footprint — I think we’ve had the world’s largest HD footprint quite a few years.”
The operator introduced HD voice calling in 2011 and today more than 30 per cent of all mobile calls use HD voice.
He explained that for Telstra it’s about the benefits it gets over time in running VoLTE, which will enable it to start to build unique 4G coverage layers without having to replicate its 3G layer.
“It means customers will always stay on 4G, which means they are on the layer that has the fastest speed and not dropping back and hanging on a 3G throughput layer — they’re staying on 4G and can get really fast call set up,” he said. “It takes us on that journey to next-generation voice calling, which will naturally evolve to things like voice-over-Wi-Fi and into next-generation voice platforms like fixed SIP-type calling and then probably a natural platform for RCS if it ever becomes a reality.”
Wright said that some customers will be able to self activate their devices as they upgrade their software. However, they also need to be part of the block of migrated service numbers.
First Cat 11 device
The market leader also introduced what it said is the world’s first LTE-Advanced (Cat 11) 600Mb/s-capable device, a hotspot that supports tri-band carrier aggregation.
The Wi-Fi 4GX Advanced III Mobile Broadband Hotspot was developed by Netgear, Ericsson and Qualcomm. It automatically switches between Wi-Fi, 3G, LTE and LTE-Advanced depending on network availability.
Telstra said it will initially deploy the Cat 11 hotspots in the central business districts of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, and in selected popular holiday locations.
Comments