Voice over LTE coming to Vodafone before Christmas
Shorter call set up times, seamless experience with VoLTE
Vodafone announced today it will commence the rollout of VoLTE in December.
Vodafone will start to offer VoLTE to postpaid customers using select capable devices, initially the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge + and Note 5, before Christmas.
Chief Technology Officer Benoit Hanssen said the company’s VoLTE service will offer an advanced calling experience and include features such as video calling.
“For customers with capable devices, VoLTE will mean an enhanced call experience including shorter call set up times as well as longer battery life on some smartphones,” Mr Hanssen said.
“VoLTE not only allows users to stay on 4G during a voice call, they can also multi-task by continuing to use 4G data services such as web browsing while making or receiving a call.”
Mr Hanssen said existing customers will be able to receive the settings for the feature Over The Air (OTA) if they have a capable device or via a software upgrade of their smartphone.
“As soon as customers receive the update on their device, they’re good to go,” he said.
“We expect the number of customers with VoLTE-capable devices to increase rapidly over the next few years as more smartphone manufacturers incorporate the feature into new models.”
Mr Hanssen said the launch of 4G voice and video calling represented a generational change for the Vodafone network.
“It’s a really exciting change for the network, as this is the first step to moving all voice traffic over to 4G,” he said.
“In terms of the network, VoLTE means enhanced spectral efficiency with 2.3 times more users per MHz. It will also support the re-farming of our spectrum from 3G to 4G so that we can continue to provide great data speeds as traffic grows.
“We’re continuing to invest heavily in our network to bring further enhancements, with seamless Voice over Wi-Fi one of the next features our customers can look forward to in the near future.”
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Notes to Editor:
VoLTE will become available on more smartphones following launch in December and during 2016, and to all postpaid and prepaid customers next year. Future devices next year will come with VoLTE already enabled.