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In this blog post, we are going to take a look at what Voice over LTE is and why it has become the new standard to deploy voice services on mobile networks. This blog will contain an example of ng-voice’s IMS/VoLTE solution to further elaborate on its importance and benefits.
Voice over LTE or VoLTE is an acronym for Voice over Long Term Evolution. VoLTE is the mechanism that provides voice over LTE. With the use of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), The IMS/VoLTE solution can enable voice services on any 4G, 5G, WiFi or other data networks.
To answer why VoLTE and virtualized networks are critical, we should look at the two main challenges that the telecom industry is facing.
1- High-data usage and increasing cost pressure.
While mobile network operators are faced with a tremendous increase of data usage in the past years (estimated that 60-70% of it is driven by video content), the willingness of consumers to pay for voice (telephony) is decreasing. New over-the-top applications such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facetime have started to absorb the revenues of operators for voice services and text messaging. With declining voice revenues and a remaining high capital intensity (e.g. expected investment into 5G infrastructure and coverage expansion) mobile network operators face increasing cost pressure and need to innovate on their offer.
2- Deploying VoLTE and virtualizing networks is the only option for operators to react.
Despite low voice prices and consumers’ decreasing willingness to pay, operators are and will be required to continue offering voice services. 3G-networks can process data and voice at the same time, but 4G and 5G networks are data-only and require additional software to enable a consumer to make voice calls on these networks. Deploying Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) and Voice-over-WiFi (VoWiFi) is the only solution to offering voice services on 4G and 5G networks as well as to free up spectrum (the most limited resource of network operators) for 3G networks and reduce costs all at once. Given the complex and costly infrastructure of legacy hardware-based networks, VoLTE and VoWiFi are an important step for operators to become more software-centric and virtualize their core networks (e.g. IMS). It also allows operators to start decommissioning their legacy 3G network. You can learn more about VoLTE here.
Here is an overview of some of the features that ng-voice’s fully containerized and cloud-native IMS core has to offer:
Apart from being feature-rich, our IMS core is based on Kubernetes architecture, with the smallest container sizes, high level of automation, and efficient use of resources, which makes it scalable, flexible, and easy to deploy and manage.
Born in a cloud-native era where software is at the center of the business, ng-voice is creating innovative mobile infrastructure solutions and making them accessible for operators and enterprises of any size that want to deploy future-proof networks. ng-voice is the ideal partner for innovative mobile (virtual) network operators and private networks. To learn more about our fully containerized and cloud-native IMS core, you can visit our solutions page or contact our team at info@ng-voice.com.
Publisher Bio
With 20 years+ experience in VoIP and IMS, Carsten led the development and implementation of the first IMS/ VoLTE platform at Telefonica in Germany and was a senior member of the Kamailio management team, developing the IMS extensions in Kamailio. He founded ng-voice in 2011 because he wanted to develop a flexible alternative to existing IMS solutions in the market.
