News
GSMA promotes single global solution for next-generation voice
messaging services
17 February 2010
The GSMA, the association for the world's mobile telecoms
industry, has announced it has adopted the work of the One Voice
Initiative to drive the global mobile industry towards a standard way of
delivering voice and messaging services for Long-Term Evolution (LTE)
[1].
The GSMA’s Voice over LTE (VoLTE) initiative has the backing of more
than 40 mobile telecoms organisations, including many of the world’s
leading mobile operators, handset manufacturers and equipment vendors,
all of whom support the principle of a single, IMS-based voice solution
for next-generation mobile broadband networks.
The GSMA will also lead the development of the specifications that will
enable interconnection and international roaming between LTE networks,
and will complete that work by early 2011.
“The GSMA recognises the importance of a single, industry-wide
solution for voice over LTE and by adopting the work of the One Voice
Initiative, we will advance the creation of a global, next-generation
wireless ecosystem,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology and Strategy
Officer at the GSMA.
“With the support of the world’s leading players in mobile, VoLTE
will generate economies of scale similar to those provided through the
ubiquitous availability of GSM-based networks and devices. As mobile
operators begin to deploy LTE, it is essential their networks are
aligned around one, common standard for voice and messaging services,
for the benefit of the mobile industry and consumers alike.”
“Telefonica plans to deploy LTE to provide an improved mobile
broadband service for our customers,” said Vicente San Miguel, CTO of
Telefónica. “It is vital that we also deliver a high quality voice and
messaging service that provides the full global interconnection and
roaming that we enjoy on our current 2G and 3G networks. Telefónica has
led the work with the GSMA on VoLTE and we strongly support this
initiative to drive a common voice and messaging solution for the mobile
industry, as it is a key enabler for the success of LTE.”
LTE is the first all-Internet Protocol (IP) network technology to be
backed by the mobile industry and will be used initially to provide very
fast, highly responsive mobile data services. For LTE to support voice
and messaging, an IP-based solution that will offer the same
interoperable and seamless experience that 2G and 3G wireless
technologies offer today is required.
IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) can achieve this, and supports all
voice call service features such as call waiting, call hold and call
barring, and is highly scalable to serve very large subscriber bases.
IMS also provides mobile operators with the ability to offer services
that can integrate voice calls with enhanced, rich features such as
presence, instant messaging and video content, delivered in an
interoperable and multi-operator environment.
The GSMA has widespread industry support for its VoLTE initiative and
expects additional organisations to join over the coming year. Mobile
operators supporting the initiative include 3 Group, AT&T, Bell Canada,
China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile, KDDI, mobilkom austria, MTS,
NTT DoCoMo, Orange, SKT, SoftBank, Telecom Italia, Telecom New Zealand,
Telefónica, Telenor, TeliaSonera, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.
Handset manufacturers and equipment vendors supporting VoLTE include
Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, Aylus, Camiant, Cisco, Colibra,
Communigate, Comneon, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Genband, Huawei, LG, Motorola,
Movial, Mu, NEC, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Qualcomm, RADVISION,
Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Tekelec.
Industry organisations such as the NGMN Alliance, 3GPP and IMTC also
support this initiative and agree there should be industry agreement on
a harmonised way to implement voice over LTE based on existing
standards.
More than 74 mobile operators from around the world have committed to
plans, trials or deployments for LTE. The world’s first commercial LTE
network was launched recently in Sweden by TeliaSonera, with Verizon
Wireless in the US, NTT DoCoMo in Japan and China Telecom set to follow
suit in 2010. China Mobile also plans to launch its TD-LTE network this
year at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.
LTE is widely regarded as the de facto mobile broadband
technology that will be adopted by the vast majority of mobile operators
globally and is expected to experience substantial growth over the next
three to five years: Infonetics Research predicts the number of global
LTE connections to exceed 72 million by 2013.
Further information
1. The One Voice Initiative was a collaboration between AT&T, Orange,
Telefónica, TeliaSonera, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent,
Ericsson, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Samsung and Sony Ericsson that
used current open standards to define the minimum mandatory set of
functionality for interoperable IMS-based voice and SMS over LTE. The
GSMA adopted the technical profile developed by the One Voice Initiative
and this work is now only referred to as the GSMA’s VoLTE initiative.
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