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VoLTE Promises to Significantly Lower Voice Infrastructure Costs
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4G LTE networks currently being deployed are dramatically impacting mobile operators, vendors and mobile end users, says iGR Research. With mobile data volumes rising and traditional cellular voice usage and revenues declining, mobile operators are understandably reluctant to further invest in legacy (circuit-switched) networks to improve the voice experience.
VoLTE is similar to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) with the primary differentiator being that VoLTE provides a mobile component to the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).
iGR believes that VoLTE is very important to LTE operators as it enables them to eventually terminate their legacy, circuit-switched voice 2G/3G network infrastructure in favor of consolidating voice traffic on the all-IP LTE network platform.
This promises to significantly lower voice infrastructure costs and improve both voice quality and the overall customer experience. In addition, VoLTE allows voice service to be integrated into other applications and content, such as games and social networking apps.
"As LTE networks roll out in a much broader way this year and through 2013, VoLTE is quickly becoming perceived as a new 'killer application.' This is particularly true from the mobile operator's perspective since a shift to IMS-/IP-based voice will help mobile operators transition its 2G/3G licensed spectrum to 4G LTE," said Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR.
"However, the path to VoLTE is likely to be challenging for all parties. It will not be until much later this decade that the majority of U.S. voice traffic is on VoLTE and not traditional circuit connections."
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