For many years operators have neglected the development of voice services in favour of expansion and diversification. Failure to drive innovation in voice has allowed over the top (OTT) providers to launch more sophisticated services and threaten operators’ most fundamental offering.
The arrival of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) offers operators the chance to regain some ground through the development of a richer suite of integrated services.
Perhaps more importantly, VoLTE is a crucial step towards greater efficiency in the network, both in terms of spectrum management and the number of network technologies operators need to maintain.
This whitepaper will argue that VoLTE creates a significant opportunity for operators, but warns that the evolution from existing voice services will place before them a number of serious challenges. None of these are insurmountable but operators must seek out and develop the expertise to understand and address these challenges if they are to fully exploit the commercial and technical benefits inherent in VoLTE.