HD VoLTE Call with eSRVCC successfully completed by ZTE and CSL

​ZTE today announced it conducted a High Definition (HD) voice over LTE (VoLTE) call using enhanced Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (eSRVCC) for Hong Kong’s leading mobile operator CSL.

With ZTE’s industry-leading technology solutions in 4G, CSL successfully conducted a HD VoLTE call hand-off to 3G with eSRVCC based pre-commercial network. HD voice will keep service continuity before and after hand-off. All network equipment used in this demonstration was provided by ZTE. This HD VoLTE call with end-to-end  QoS assurance provide highly reliable user experience and help operators differentiate their services from OTT competitors.

The Adaptive Multi Rate Wideband(AMR-WB) speech codec was supported in the HD VoLTE call demonstration. This HD voice speech codec provides improved speech quality due to a wider speech bandwidth from 50 to 7,000Hz and ensures no significant impact on radio-frequency capacity due to the efficiency of codec suitable. HD voice technology will significant promote the development of high quality voice service, such as speech recognition, speech-to-text and HD conferencing.

“VoLTE provides an improvement in spectral efficiency and is needed to increase network capacity and allow to re-farm the 3G spectrum in the future,” said Christian Daigneault, CSL Chief Technology Officer. “This HD VoLTE call using eSRVCC will shorten call set-up time, assure good handover to 3G where required and creates a better user experience for our customers. CSL has been the first to bring Dual Band LTE at 1800/2600 MHz in Asia and will continue to bring a superior network experience to its customers. The success of this demonstration is an important milestone in the development of LTE voice services in the mobile industry.”

“We are proud to work as a business partnership with CSL and this demonstration is testament to that.” said ZTE Core Network President Mr. Liu Jianhua. “We’ll continue to work with CSL to implement state-of-the-art solutions to help the company build a high-efficiency network for the Hong Kong market.”

Source:
http://4g-portal.com/hd-volte-call-with-esrvcc-successfully-completed-by-zte-and-csl?utm_source=4g-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=generated-2013-03-04

VoLTE – 4G’s next big test (Opinion from Anite)

​In 2012, SKT and LG U+ in South Korea, as well as MetroPCS in the United States, all announced the launch of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) networks. Equally, in recent months, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 10.1, complete with VoLTE capability. However, despite the apparent commercial readiness of VoLTE services, Paul Beaver, Products Director at device test and measurement specialists, Anite, suggests that “Over the Top” (OTT) providers of Voice over IP (VoIP) services still remain a very real threat to mobile operators. In order to combat this threat, operators will need to differentiate themselves from OTT players, through the provision of a top quality voice service. The delivery of this high level of service quality, as well as the speed at which VoLTE will enter the market is, as Beaver explains, indivisibly linked to the evolution of testing.

Mobile voice goes over the top – The current VoLTE market

Global LTE deployments are continuing to rise and the technology is gaining ever more market recognition. However, LTE possesses a key limitation that the industry is increasingly looking to resolve – voice. Even in light of VoLTE launches in South Korea and the United States, the majority of LTE networks are still only able to support data and cannot handle voice calls – instead the user is transferred to a legacy 2G/3G network whenever they want to make a call. This situation is counter intuitive, considering that traditionally, the principal role of a mobile operator is to supply voice services. While LTE networks have been primarily launched in order to cater for the increasing market demand for data services, the omission of voice services has nevertheless left operators in a vulnerable position.

If operators fail to develop solutions that will allow voice calls to be made over LTE networks then they will be unable to decommission legacy networks. This will leave them unable to benefit from the superior spectrum utilisation and cost efficiency that LTE offers over legacy technologies. Equally, this failure would impact on user experience, with call setup delays and unreliability when switching to the legacy network all impacting on the operators’ ability to provide a top quality voice service. In turn, this poor service quality will put operators at risk of losing their position as the primary suppliers of premium voice services, leaving OTT players ideally placed to supersede them in the mobile voice market.

Industry challenges – Quality control for VoLTE

It is undoubtedly early days for VoLTE, and the technology remains largely at the trial stage. Currently, device manufacturers, chipset vendors and operators are all putting VoLTE through its paces. Because of VoLTE’s technological infancy, there is a diverse range of interpretations among mobile operators, in terms of how best to integrate VoLTE in networks and devices. This wide range of different implementations may present a significant challenge to operators in terms of interoperability. Equally, while roaming may be taken for granted with legacy technologies, it is not guaranteed to work for VoLTE unless these interoperability issues can be resolved, and as a result the current expected levels of service quality may be compromised.

Although the industry in general – and the GSMA in particular – is working towards a harmonisation to ensure VoLTE is applied in a consistent way, there is currently no ‘one size fits all’ VoLTE solution for operators. So in order to overcome this challenge operators must undertake a rigorous programme of VoLTE testing. By testing in the laboratory, operators can incorporate a diverse range of variable conditions into their test programmes. Full network roaming capability will eventually need to be enabled for VoLTE, and owing to diverse interpretations of the technology, this will only seek to present further interoperability challenges for the industry. Again, thoroughly testing devices for interoperability in the lab will play a key role in achieving full network roaming capability for VoLTE programmes. Device Manufacturers will need to ensure that VoLTE does not have a detrimental effect on device performance, and that devices are capable of handling VoLTE calls upon their introduction to the market. Regardless of the network infrastructure, mobile subscribers will continue to expect a carrier grade voice service on their mobile device. A ‘best effort’ VoIP type service will not suffice and operators will have to ensure that VoLTE offers excellent levels of quality and performance. If VoLTE fails to provide this level of service then it is liable to gain a negative perception among consumers.

The road ahead – VoLTE takes a test drive
By leveraging lab-based testing, mobile operators, chipset vendors and device manufacturers can make use of a cost effective, simulated network environment to test both component interoperability and overall service quality. In adopting this approach, operators are no longer reliant on live network testing and costly, time consuming device field trials. Moreover, lab based testing can ensure that VoLTE operates entirely as expected, and in turn, this will help to advance VoLTE devices to market and ultimately safeguard customer satisfaction, by ensuring first class levels of service.
Ultimately, VoLTE’s long term success will be determined by its ability to deliver carrier grade voice services across an all-IP network, and on the latest LTE devices. However, a level of cooperation within the mobile industry is vital if VoLTE is to emerge as a commercial viability. The speed at which LTE can be deployed and its level of service quality are all inextricably linked to the evolution of testing; as well as the desire amongst operators to consolidate services on LTE and eventually migrate all of their subscribers to LTE, freeing up the spectrum that  is currently taken up by legacy technology.

Source: http://www.telecoms.com/72771/volte-%E2%80%93-4g%E2%80%99s-next-big-test/

Mobile operators should slow down rollout of VoLTE

Ovum analyst Jeremy Green is advising mobile operators to slow down on the rollout of mobile VoIP over 4G LTE networks because there are still service and supply issues to work out, and no compelling services or revenue opportunities.

Green advised operators to focus on data services over their high-speed wireless networks in the short term. In the long term, VoLTE will provide network efficiency and costs savings, he added.

"While there are some questions about how to provide voice services during the interim period when the LTE network sits alongside legacy 3G and even 2G networks, there is general agreement that the ultimate destination is a solution based on the IP multimedia subsystem, which is now designated as VoLTE--'voice over LTE'," Green wrote.

Service parity issues, such as support for emergency calls and in-call handover between LTE and other networks, are holding operators back from deploying VoLTE. There is also an insufficient number of devices out there that support VoLTE and problems with device performance, such as battery drain.

"The service benefits of VoLTE also appear to be tenuous," Green wrote. "Even if RCS services were a sure-fire winner (and this is by no means an established certainty), their deployment is largely unrelated to LTE, as the few commercial deployments to date largely demonstrate. It is a similar situation with HD voice, which can be deployed on both LTE and non-LTE networks," he explained.

At the same time, factors that are driving operators toward early VoLTE deployment include network and spectrum efficiencies, eliminating the need for a separate voice network, improving call setup times and the offering new services, such as high-definition voice, simultaneous data usage and rich communication suite services.

Green advised operators to stay engaged with VoLTE, but not to rush into deployment. In the case of VoLTE, the early bird does not catch the worm, he added.

For more: http://ovum.com/2013/01/10/theres-no-harm-in-taking-a-slow-road-to-volte-deployment/

Source: http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/ovum-mobile-operators-should-slow-down-rollout-volte/2013-01-11

2013 Telecoms Predictions (Informa T&M)

Analyst group Informa Telecoms & Media has revealed its Top Ten trends for 2013 for the telecoms and media sectors. Five of the predictions relate directly to telecoms operators and the other five cover the TV, digital media and OTT communications sector.

“We reckon that 2013 is going to be another tough year for the telecoms industry with a continued emphasis on cost control,” said Mark Newman, Chief Research Officer at Informa. “For operators, the migration to a data-centric business and revenue model will continue apace. And we see risks for those operators that do not invest properly in building wide-area networks that can deliver high-quality data services”.
“When it comes to new services, there will be a continued usage migration to smartphones and tablets. But both established and new players are trying to figure out how best to monetize mobile usage. Don’t be surprised to see some of the disruptors being disrupted by new technologies and business models in 2013”.

1. Wifi will become a victim of its own success
There will be a shift in operator sentiment away from public wifi as it becomes evident that the growing availability of free-to-end-user wifi devalues the mobile-broadband business model. Mobile operators will respond by articulating the value of their cellular networks better, but others not affected by this trend will double down on their public wifi investments to continue to propel the deployment and monetization of wifi.

2. Facebook goes all in on mobile
Facebook is having a tough time translating its popularity on mobile devices into revenues. Although its most recent financial results at last showed some improvement in mobile advertising revenues, we do not believe that this alone will be enough to sustain and grow its mobile business. There are three new monetization strategies currently available to Facebook: 1) develop new premium services to sell to its existing customers; 2) take a share of revenues from third-party content providers that develop services on its platform; or 3) expand into the device or device software business. We believe that the first two are Facebook’s preferred options and that billing and marketing / distribution relationships with operators, particularly in emerging markets, could bring tangible benefits. With regards to the devices business, we expect Facebook to emerge as a strong backer of the new Mozilla mobile operating system which is expected to challenge Android in the low-cost smartphone device sector.

3. What’s up with WhatsApp
The hype bubble around WhatsApp and other OTT messaging services will continue to expand in 2013, especially driven by frequent acquisition rumors, but the emergence of early anecdotal evidence that some consumer segments are starting to migrate their attention and usage to alternative services, both old and new, will start to dampen expectations and highlight the fickle and fragmented nature of consumer behavior.

4. Digital services: Show us the money
Investors will demand a clear path to revenue from investments into digital services before operators begin to feel any share-price benefit from initiatives. PR-friendly they may be, but demands and expectations from shareholders will grow that they are also friendly to the bottom line. It will become apparent to many operators that material revenue streams that can shift the dial of group-level revenues will be very hard to come by.

5. Content providers continue to spend on infrastructure
Google, Netflix et al will continue to invest heavily in extending their infrastructure closer to users in 2013. Informa recommends that operators consider these proposals carefully and recognize where they are likely to gain more from reduced costs and increased network efficiency than lose out in terms of uncertain revenues from so-called two-sided business models.

6.Subsidies under the microscope, but not necessarily for the right reason
Handset-financing models established themselves in Europe in 2012 and will continue to spread globally in 2013. But a reduction in subsidies and changes to traditional ways of retailing devices will come at a cost to operators. Physical and online retailers, such as Amazon, as well as device-platform owners, such as Apple or Google, will accelerate their own initiatives to disrupt traditional device distribution models. Every slip in the share of devices sold through operator channels will serve to further erode the balance of power between operators and internet and platform owners at the negotiating table.

7. Shared network, shared pain?
The logic of network-sharing will increasingly be questioned by the industry given the core strategic importance of a differentiated network platform. In Europe, especially, we expect more operators to forsake dividends and free cash-flow in order to ramp up investments into network infrastructure in the hope of establishing a competitive advantage built upon network quality of experience. However, despite this reversal of attitude by some, network-sharing and operator consolidation will sweep through emerging markets, especially in Africa.

8. Voice over LTE: Only fools rush in
Boosted by a lack of any negative customer feedback about interim voice for LTE solutions (such as falling back to circuit-switched 2G and 3G networks), more operators will join Verizon Wireless and EE in pushing out their timelines for the commercial deployment of VoLTE. A business case that looks to be based solely on spectrum efficiency will struggle to gain enough executive support to justify a rushed investment plan.

9. APIs: The new currency of the digital economy
APIs will become the leading currency of the digital economy – speeding service activation, configuration, customer experience management and time to revenue. Whether directly monetized or not, APIs are the new “interconnect standard” among digital service stakeholders.

10. Netflix will have a breakout TV hit in 2013
In 2012, a previously niche channel player, AMC, owned the most popular show on US TV – “Breaking Bad”. In 2013, it will be the turn of an OTT provider to break through – perhaps with “House of Cards”. Pay-TV operators should respond by looking at how they might partner with Netflix, rather than seeing it only as a threat.

Source: http://www.telecoms.com/57911/top-10-trends-for-2013/

VoLTE tested on the live Swedish LTE network

Tele2 AB,  announced that Tele2 is the first operator in Europe to have tested voice over LTE (VoLTE) in the live Swedish Tele2 LTE network. The tests proved much better voice experience in the IP based LTE network compared to 2G and 3G networks.

The tests have been conducted in a fully end-to-end standards compliant manner using technology from Mavenir Systems and Nokia Siemens Networks implemented in the live LTE network in Sweden.

VoLTE technology improves voice quality significantly and enables much faster call setup times.
Joachim Horn, CTIO Tele2 AB, commented: “We have consciously built in support for VoLTE in the 4G network, covering almost the entire population of Sweden. The tests we have conducted have shown tremendous results in a multi-vendor environment. From a technical standpoint we could be ready to launch commercially within a year.”

VoLTE is the next generation technology for transporting voice traffic as an IP data stream in LTE. Today the LTE networks are solely used for data traffic whilst voice traffic is still handled in the 2G and 3G networks. By moving and converting the voice traffic to LTE data, the opportunities for a superior and seamless user experience of voice integrated in new LTE services and applications are increasing.

Joachim Horn continued: “Not only does VoLTE enable superior voice and data experience simultaneously for our customers, but the technology is also more cost efficient”.

Source: http://4g-portal.com/volte-tested-on-the-live-swedish-lte-network

2013 Telecoms Predictions (Analysys Mason)

In 2013, roll-out of LTE services will have limited immediate economic impact, social media giants look set to stir up IP-based messaging services and smartphone penetration growth rates will slow considerably, according to Analysys Mason’s top telecoms predictions for the next 12 months. The company also predicts that Apple will continue to lose market share in the tablet space and the VoLTE investment case will come into the spotlight for operators.
 
1. LTE arrives, but with limited immediate impact: in 2013 LTE will become a commercial reality in many more countries, but will have limited economic impact in the next 12 months. Some European countries and emerging markets in Latin America are set to launch the network, as well as countries in South-East Asia via the Asia–Pacific band plan. Some developed markets such as South Korea will also start to deploy LTE-A and take advantage of features such as carrier aggregation to craft larger channels for higher-speed services.
However, the immediate economic impact of LTE will be limited in countries where it has been priced as a premium product and the economy remains sluggish (e.g. Italy and Spain). The industry will also realise that consumers are unwilling to pay a premium for LTE mobile broadband, and that this service will not compete with next-generation fixed access on anything other than a complementary basis. The effect will be to push down the price of 3G/HSPA mobile broadband services.

2. The ‘big switch-off’ will accelerate: 2013 will see growing operator focus on ‘the big switch-off’ – legacy mobile infrastructure for mobile network operators, copper networks and PSTN for fixed operators. Approaches to this will be varied. One operator in South Korea, for example, has already switched off its 2G network.

3. Social media giants to further shake up IP-based messaging: in 2012, operators responded to SMS cannibalisation by launching RCS-e, which was followed by a number of ‘telco-OTT’ services. In the next 12 months, competition will heat up further as social media giants such as Facebook move in. Analysys Mason forecasts that European operator revenue from messaging will decline by 34% in the next four years, from EUR28 billion in 2011 to EUR18.6 billion in 2017.

4. VoLTE investment case to come into the spotlight: the first voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) services came to market in 2012. Though widespread commercial deployments are still some way off, operators will need to make some tough decisions about the future of their voice services. Potential cost savings are currently driving the IMS investment case, but revenue implications are uncertain, and a clear vision for how voice services should evolve in an LTE world has yet to be articulated. HTML5/WebRTC will further stimulate the debate about whether ‘voice is just an application’.

5. Smartphone penetration growth rate to slow markedly: the smartphone market will continue to grow but the rate at which it grows will be markedly slower than in previous years. The number of annual global smartphone shipments will grow from 691 million in 2012 to 869 million in 2013. However, the rate of growth in the rate of new smartphone connections will significantly decline: from 39% in 2011 to 29% in 2012. In 2013, this growth rate will decline further to 20%.
Analysys Mason predicts continued, incremental development of the smartphone OS market share situation. Both Android and iOS are predicted to marginally grow their share of smartphone sales in the next 12 months globally (from 56.4% to 58.1% and 21.5% to 22% respectively). However, Symbian’s market share for sales will fall from 5.9% to 2.7%, reaching zero in 2016.

6. Apple to fall below 50% market share for tablet sales: as the tablet market continues to grow, Apple’s dominance of it will continue to decline, faster than many expect. Apple will fall below 50% market share for tablets by the end of 2013, with the iPad mini expected to have only a limited impact on sales numbers due to its high price point (USD329 versus less than USD200 for a Kindle Fire HD). Both Apple and Samsung lost market share in 2011-12 to the benefit of other vendors such as HTC, Motorola, RIM and Sony.
Content ecosystems for tablets will be a key "differentiator" in 2013 and as important a feature for tablets as the quality and size of the screen or processing power. Vendors who focus on expanding their content line-up and international footprint will be most likely to capture non-Apple tablet users.

7. Multi-device subscription pricing to emerge: selling prices for smartphones and tablets have been falling in the past five years; the average price of a smartphone has declined by EUR300 since 2007. This trend has supported increasing data penetration and the emergence of the multi-device user segment, which will result in many more operators launching multi-device subscription plans to capture additional revenue. This is particularly true for LTE subscriptions where per-gigabyte pricing covers a wide range of USD14–85 per gigabyte.

8. Traditional TV under more pressure: OTT/Connected TV and non-linear TV will continue to force broadcasters/pay-TV and telecoms operators to re-think their strategies. The take-up of paid-for OTT video services to the TV in the USA and Canada will more than double to 53.1 million households between 2012 and 2017, representing 37.4% of households.
The take-up of paid-for OTT video services in Europe will reach an estimated 2.3 million households in 2012, representing a mere 0.7% of households. We expect this to increase to 32.2 million, or 10% of households, in 2017. Compared with the USA and Canada, growth in Europe will continue to be constrained by a lower propensity to pay for video services, because of the widespread availability of high-quality free content from public broadcasters.

9. Wi-Fi to the rescue: small-cell/service-provider Wi-Fi solutions will address mobile operators’ needs for dense urban wireless coverage and capacity, but limited backhaul availability, standards maturity and solution costs will blunt major deployments until late 2013 or early 2014. LTE 2600 will emerge as a key option for small-cell spectrum gaining network and device support to address capacity needs of developed-market operators, complemented by growing 5GHz Wi-Fi providing improved Wi-Fi performance.
Service-provider Wi-Fi solutions based on HotSpot 2.0 and devices supporting Passpoint 2.0 will come to market in late 2013, helping to bridge the chasm between cellular networks and the emerging ‘carrier grade’ Wi-Fi service. Operators will also start to look at providing various grades of service: cellular, SP Wi-Fi and ‘Best Effort’ Wi-Fi to help differentiate their service and brand as well as support "monetisation" of the wireless experience.

10. Operators in emerging markets come of age: process transformation, opex and network cost optimization will become major issues in emerging markets as operators within these regions are coming of age and an apparently endless growth in mobile penetration rates is finally slowing down.
The penetration rates of active SIMs in some African and Middle Eastern countries, for example, already exceed 100% of the population (eg. South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates).

Source: http://4g-portal.com/2013-telecoms-predictions-from-analysys-mason