Telenor Sweden has tapped Ericsson to upgrade its core network to enable voice over LTE and voice over Wi-Fi. The two services go hand-in-hand because the IP multimedia subsystem core that enables VoLTE also facilitates calling over Wi-Fi networks.
Ericsson’s IMS core includes a multimedia telephony application server, enriched messaging, call session control, a session border gateway, a Web communication gateway and a media resource system. In addition to VoLTE and VoWi-Fi, the Ericsson infrastructure will enable rich communications services and user data consolidation for Telenor Sweden.
“The flexibility and scalability of the services deployed is just as important as their performance, and we believe this will provide an excellent platform for Telenor as we build Sweden’s leading mobile network,” said Telenor Sweden’s CTO Stefan Jäverbring.
Ericsson’s IMS core solution is verified toward the smartphone brands that support Wi-Fi calling. Google, Apple, Samsung, LG and HTC all support Wi-Fi calling in their high-end smartphones now.
Telenor Sweden said that its customers will be able to use their mobile devices to make calls indoors if they do not have good cellular coverage. Wi-Fi calling is usually a more economical solution for customers than an in-home small cell, or femtocell.
The Swedish operator currently has roughly 2.5 million mobile customers. If the operator is able to successfully transition its customer base to VoLTE it could have the opportunity to sunset its 3G infrastructure and repurpose its 3G spectrum for LTE.