AT&T VoLTE service available to 295M pops, supporting more than 27M
AT&T Mobility claims its voice-over-LTE service was now available across nearly its entire LTE network, with the IP-based voice service supporting more than 27 million “active users,” which it said was more than its rivals.
AT&T Mobility said its VoLTE product was now accessible by more than 295 million potential customers, or roughly 96% of the 308 million pops claimed to be covered by its LTE network. The VoLTE service transmits voice calls as a data session over the carrier’s LTE network, providing support for HD Voice calling.
More importantly for the broader VoLTE market, AT&T Mobility said this month it began limited commercial support for cross-carrier VoLTE sessions in “select areas.” AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless announced in late 2014 plans to work on cross-carrier VoLTE interoperability, with T-Mobile US also adding it was working with those carriers to further interoperability.
AT&T Mobility in October launched support for voice-over-Wi-Fi calling after it gained a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission regarding teletypewriter functionality.
AT&T Mobility initially launched VoLTE across select markets in mid-2014 as part of its “market-by-market” rollout plans. The launch just beat out T-Mobile US, which also went with a market-by-market approach, and was several months ahead of Verizon Wireless, which went nationwide with its VoLTE launch.
Sprint remains a laggard in launching VoLTE, although the carrier has said it is working on its own solution. Sprint has put greater emphasis on its VoWi-Fi calling features.
The move to VoLTE is expected to allow wireless carriers to transmit voice traffic more efficiently and eventually shutter legacy 2G and 3G networks currently burdened with carrying all voice traffic and a good portion of data traffic. Analysts have noted carriers could achieve up to 40% more spectral efficiency running voice traffic over their LTE networks compared with legacy systems.
AT&T Mobility last month launched VoLTE video calling support it said allows customers with compatible devices – currently just the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active, with more said to be on the way – and in AT&T Mobility’s LTE coverage to conduct video calls. Customers can initiate the call as a video call or switch between regular voice calls and the video session. Video calls use both voice and data, which are billed separately under a customer’s current rate plan. The service is presently only available to postpaid subscribers.
AT&T Mobility said the VoLTE video calling service supports handoffs from sessions initiated in a cellular connection that then sees a customer move to a Wi-Fi connection, although that session will continue to need cellular access to maintain the call.
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