VoLTE : Hype or Reality?

VoLTE refers to Voice over LTE, is commonly becoming the buzzword in the telco world that are rushing to deploy super fast LTE based 4G wireless networks. 

In this article we will discuss especially in the Indian context, whether Volte is just a hype that will fade away like so many technologies that we hear or will it achieve mass scale penetration as a crucial infrastructure to be deployed by the TELCOS for achieving differentiated and cost effective services. 

 Before we discuss Volte , it's essential to realise the importance and relevance of a wireless broadband technologies like 4G to a developing economy like India, where it is being deployed at a furious pace by the leading telcos of the country and is all set to enable significant wireless broadband penetration in India. Unlike many other developed countries in the world, India has a very low wired broadband penetration, that includes both rural & urban areas, and even in future short-term it looks very unlikely that this will change for a variety of reasons. 4g & 3G technologies are addressing that gap and are the wired broadband equivalent that is already present at 80% + penetration levels in developed western economies and even in Asian economies like Singapore, Korea & Japan. 

 Given that 4G will be a reality in times,  it is natural and indeed inevitable that VOLTE adoption will be happening on a large scale for a variety of reasons. Customers will love it because of the significantly superior voice experience and a much shorter call set up times; there are the added advantages of simultaneous video / chat and other other multimedia communication capabilities that it allows, commonly referred to as RCS (Rich Communication Services). TELCOs would like to roll this out because besides allowing them to achieve service and product differentiation, VoLTE being a more efficient technology even for carrying vanilla voice services, allows them to squeeze more out of the deployed assets in terms of spectrum and equipment footprint , it also has a potential to lower their OPEX by way of having one unified network for both voice and data. 

Therefor in essence, we can safely conclude that since VoLTE deployment is a win-win scenario for both the service provider and the end customer, in a mass market like India, where economies of scale exist, it will be a reality in times to come. The whole eco system of appropriate VoLTE enabled 4G devices, with clear standards will move in this direction to ensure this.

In a subsequent article , I will share what are the technology enablers in VoLTE that allow superior voice experience unlike that offered by VoIP offerings of popular OTT apps and how Telcos can leverage these to offer superior customer experience.