Verizon Testing Voice-over-LTE in Two Major Cities; Plans National Rollout in 2013

[dgstorm]

The possibility of Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) on Verizon just took a few steps closer to actualization. Verizon is currently doing some trial runs of the service in two (unspecified) major cities. Their plan is to start rolling out the service in 2013, after their entire LTE network is mostly in place. For those unfamiliar, the concept of VoLTE gives some distinct advantages. It allows the carrier to host phone conversations over an LTE network, which facilitates simultaneous use of talk and data on your LTE device. Furthermore, the quality of the sound is supposedly better than land-line or regular cell-phones.

Of course, as often as Verizon's LTE network has gone this year, it would seem that there are still some "hurdles" for them to overcome. In the long run, it is likely that almost all carriers will move in this direction, as there is a cost benefit to it for the company. Essentially, the current generation of smartphone users and likely future generations tend to use more data, such as texts, email, and Facebook posts than traditional phone calls in order to stay connected to friends and family. By combining voice and data into one stream, the carriers will effectively staunch the bleeding of lost revenues from traditional phone calls diminishing in popularity.

The above video is a demonstration of the tech provided by Verizon last year using an LG Revolution.

Source: PhoneArena

[metalspring]

i just hope they get lte to where i live soon, im stuck between 3 lte areas but none here? its in erie pa, its in pittsburgh pa, its in youngstown oh (which i live like 30 minutes from) but nothing here...i wanna be able to actually test different phones on lte before i buy them, in case lte does come around here...
back on topic though, i wonder how much better voice quality will be over lte and if it will effect data speeds in any way

[tjk629]

Once VoLTE rolls out will vzw start selling LTE only devices?

[wolstonc]

Once VoLTE rolls out will vzw start selling LTE only devices?

I don't think so. Our phones get 1X and such when we aren't in 3g/4g areas, so I dont really see the gain from voLTE. Won't voice just slow down the lte data, and essentially make all of the 3g they invested in rather useless? If they made 4g only devices, I'd be rather mad when my friends 3g iPhone got data and I didn't.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

[bazar6]

Once VoLTE rolls out will vzw start selling LTE only devices?

I don't think so. Our phones get 1X and such when we aren't in 3g/4g areas, so I dont really see the gain from voLTE. Won't voice just slow down the lte data, and essentially make all of the 3g they invested in rather useless? If they made 4g only devices, I'd be rather mad when my friends 3g iPhone got data and I didn't.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

A little bit ago VZW announced they are no longer allowing new non-LTE smartphones/hot-spots/tabs/netbooks in their lineup.
Source: Verizon Demands LTE on all Future Equipment

[Desmond82]

so what will this mean for those of us using 3rd party apps to get free voip service?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[wolstonc]

A little bit ago VZW announced they are no longer allowing new non-LTE smartphones/hot-spots/tabs/netbooks in their lineup.
Source: Verizon Demands LTE on all Future Equipment

But still, wouldn't 4g-only devices be a disadvantage? We wouldn't get service in areas that don't have 4g, the 4g airwaves would also have to accommodate voice instead of just data, our 3g phones would be useless, and Verizon's 3g that made it most reliable call quality will be replaced by their 4g that's been extremely unreliable so far..

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

[loki993]

So just one mort thing to push you over that 4gig cap. That's gonna seem really low once you start using it to make calls

Sent from my DROIDXified ICS D2

[jayman350]

so what do you think this means for their phone/data plans? I can't imagine that they would charge less b/c you are only going to be using LTE, instead of LTE and voice. Would they get rid of the minutes allocation and just go off of data use? Does not make sense to me to have to pay for a structured plan of minutes only to have to use your data to make calls.

I would hope that they could distinguish between calls over LTE and data usage (web browsing, d/l apps from the market, etc), b/c otherwise that is a real easy way to screw someone out of their 4GB of data when they are making phone calls and having it take away from their allowed data use.

VZW needs to get their LTE network to stay up and running for an extended period of time before they start adding more traffic to it... cause you know, this is still a phone, and if 4G goes down AND you can no longer make a phone call, what is the point of switching to 4G in the first place? I don't like the idea of this at all, too many things to go wrong and/or screw people over.

[JoeeDB]

This won't be in effect for over a year and I'm sure Verizon will have all their plans adjusted for when it does come out. If they have a 4GB plan for only DATA now (no phone calls, obviously), I'm pretty sure (hoping atleast) that they would bump it up or do something if they are adding phone calls to that list. Especially video calls which I'm guessing use a ton of data.