Qualcomm Technologies and ZTE have achieved a 5G-enabled Voice over New Radio call, the U.S. chipmaker said in a release.
The call was performed in compliance with 3GPP Release 15 specifications over the 2.5 GHz spectrum band by utilizing a ZTE’s 5G NR base station and a 5G smartphone form factor test device powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G modem-RF system.
Voice services are a fundamental offering for mobile operators, Qualcomm noted, and the ability to complete Voice over New Radio (VoNR) calls will be an important step in the global mobile industry’s evolution from Non-standalone to Standalone 5G, because it will allow operators to deliver high-quality voice service without having to rely on VoLTE (Voice over LTE) or an LTE anchor.
The 5G VoNR call represents a new step completed by Qualcomm Technologies and ZTE in their ongoing collaboration to support the evolution of 5G, the chipmaker said. Previously, collaboration between the two companies produced what the companies claimed to be the world’s first end-to-end 5G NR Interoperability Data Testing (IoDT) system, demonstrating a data connection based on the 3GPP Release 15 standard in November 2017 in China.
Additionally, both Qualcomm and ZTE completed a live demonstration of 5G network services based on an end-to-end sub-6 GHz commercial system in February 2019 in China. More recently, Qualcomm Technologies and ZTE completed the first 5G mobile phone millimeter-wave interoperability test in the country.
“This achievement with ZTE allows us to further support our goal of unlocking 5G’s ability to power worldwide connectivity capabilities,” said Durga Malladi, senior vice president and general manager, 4G/5G, Qualcomm Technologies. “At Qualcomm Technologies, we are committed to continuing the progression of 5G so we can in turn help drive innovation and economies worldwide.”
“As a long-term partner of ZTE, Qualcomm Technologies is working with us to promote technical verification and commercialization in the 5G development process,” said Bai Yanmin, general manager of RAN products, ZTE. “ZTE has always maintained an industry-leading position in terms of SA networking solution. This successful 5G VoNR call has taken an important step towards the commercial use of seamless native 5G voice experience, and will also strongly support the construction of 5G SA, so as to offer 5G to more service providers, enterprise users and consumers.”
