LTE is noted for its speed, simplicity and elegance. It can support stunning data rates and has the potential to revolutionize telecommunications with a host of innovative, high-bandwidth applications.
But for all of the promise inherent in its blazing speeds, LTE still has to figure out how to handle the industry’s cash cow: voice. In its current form, LTE cannot support SMS and voice services based on circuit-switch technology.
“There are concerns regarding how to deliver voice and SMS over LTE [because] voice is the primary source of sales accounting for an average of about 75 percent of wireless services revenue,” says ABI Research analyst Nadine Manjaro.
LTE is designed as an IP-only technology and is not designed to carry voice. It has to use an overlaid voice solution, and despite the technology’s rapidly approaching worldwide deployments, the industry has yet to settle on a single voice-over-LTE technology.
An ideal solution will create a standard for voice over LTE that will be implemented by the vast majority of operators, thereby ensuring roaming and service continuity across networks, Manjaro says. “One common solution is needed to fit all LTE operators.”
The main problem is discovering what that solution will be.
