What’s next for mobile voice?

Operators should spend more time thinking about that value added service commonly known as voice, according to Bryan Davies, director of marketing Alcatel Lucent, speaking today at CommunicAsia.
With the data explosion and everyone talking video, its sometimes easy to forget that voice is still the primary mobile money maker and Davies said it’s imperative industry players work together to ensure a healthy mobile industry, with a strong voice offering, that includes everyone.

Davies, who has spent 24 years working at Alcatel Lucent repeated the oft heard mantra that devices were continuing on the path towards becoming smarter and more powerful, while the internet was becoming ever more mobile and that carriers were being forced to expand their data infrastructure.
But while Apple and its iPhone had turned the promise of 3G into a reality, Davies asked what became of voice in this new reality, and whether it too had an important role to play.
Voice, said Davies, was actually the ultimate “killer app,” the only problem being it was still running on tech invented over 20 years ago, when much better technology was now available. VoIP, for example, said Davies, provides a much more natural sounding voice and the wider bandwidth afforded by data enables much greater voice clarity.
Meanwhile, with app stores booming, increasing numbers of subscribers are apparently flocking to adopt multimedia communications, though there is still far too much fragmentation in the space. What with Skype, Aim, Google Voice and a plethora of other programs to chat from, users either need a routing service, or to be signed in to a dozen apps for VoIP apps to be much use.
LTE, when it finally makes it off PowerPoint slides and into reality, will also be a mobile voice game changer, but not necessarily in a good way, as it provides an IP bandwidth only to the end device and lacks the 2G/3G circuit continuity and all IP global interoperability, which is not exactly ideal.
Still, the GSMA has taken the project under its wing with its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) initiative based on IMS and meant to kick start the LTE voice revolution.
Whatever eventually does happen to voice, however, Davies advises mobile service providers to think about changing their revenue generation model by adding a wider range of services because while revenue from voice won’t disappear any time soon, it’s just not a good idea to put all of one’s eggs in one basket.
See Davies’ conclusion below: