VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is finally becoming a reality, with the pace of commercial deployments quickening and the big two US carriers enlarging on their grand plans. However, the technology remains a defensive move. Most operators cannot quite let go of their traditional voice/messaging cash cow altogether, and are looking to VoLTE, as part of a broader set of unified communications services, to differentiate themselves from Skype and keep cellco voice relevant. However, because it requires wide area coverage, and is reliant on a hefty IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) deployment, VoLTE is a big ticket item on the carrier’s spending plan. And it is tough to see how that investment will be justified except in the defensive sense of slowing the defection to over-the-top services (and even that will require significant outlay on marketing and on developing clear added value for VoLTE and its RCS (Rich Communications Services) sister – no easy task). Whether VoLTE/RCS really can provide something so compelling that users flock back from Skype remains to be seen. At least carriers can minimize the cost and deployment burden somewhat by turning to new virtualization techniques.
AT&T, which has a sweeping program for virtualization and software defined networking (SDN), says its forthcoming VoLTE launch will be one aspect of that. It is deploying NFV (Network Functions Virtualization), SDN and cloud technologies in many projects from this year in a bid to cut costs and speed up the deployment of new services, as well as shake up its supply chain. Marian Croak, the carrier’s SVP for advanced services development, told FierceWireless that the SDN efforts had started being wireline-focused but were now being applied to all infrastructure. She added: ‘The underlying network to support Voice over LTE and the IMS piece of that will be virtualized and will run in a cloud.”
AT&T will launch a VoLTE-powered HD Voice service in select markets this week, initially with the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. Verizon has delayed its own roll-out and is now vague about its deadline, except for being ‘some time this year’, but says that when it does launch nationwide, it will have value added services like video chat, and a wide range of devices, from day one. T-Mobile, whose MetroPCS element was the first US operator to deploy VoLTE ‘ tying for first in the world with the Korean leaders ‘ went live in Seattle this week with its first service as a combined entity. T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray wrote in a blog post that VoLTE will support call set-ups at twice the speed of traditional calls. TMo already offers HD Voice on its 3G network. Sprint plans to add HD Voice this year, but has no timelines for VoLTE.
Virtualized, outsourced VoLTE was on display at Russian operator MTS, which carried out test calls using Nokia’s telco cloud infrastructure.
This cloud-based system ‘ including a full voice core with IMS, Telephony Application Server and HSS ‘ was used alongside the operator’s own RAN for tests on a live network. CTO Andrey Ushatskiy spoke for many cellcos when he commented: ‘This live implementation of virtualized VoLTE with Noki, is an important proof-of-concept and shows our commitment to offering our customers the most advanced voice services possible.’
With its high implementation costs and migration issues, VoLTE seems a good candidate for virtualization, whether inhouse or via a cloud service. Oracle sees the opportunity, and its latest product supporting the NFV (Network Function Virtualization) specs is designed for rapid launch of VoLTE and RCS products.
The database firm has updated its Communications Core Session Manager to support virtualization, helping to coordinate signaling between applications, policy servers and subscriber databases; and handle route signaling between the network access and the edge. With its expertise in data center software, NFV is a good chance for Oracle to extend its telco business into the network itself, which led to its acquisitions last year of SIP equipment companies Acme Packet and Telcordia.
Bhaskar Gorti, general manager of Oracle Communications, commented: “NFV represents a huge opportunity for service providers to consolidate network infrastructure, lower costs and open their networks to new players. Oracle Communications Core Session Manager provides immediate access to NFV functionality, while offering leading edge core session control capabilities to help protect network borders.”
But all the benefits of virtualization do not remove two hard facts about VoLTE. First, it will require carriers to intensify their RAN build-out, since they will need full coverage and, in many cases, denser cells for guaranteed hand-off and QoS. Jim Taiclet, CEO of American Tower, recently claimed that operators will need to increase density by 20% to 30% over time to support VoLTE, compared to circuit-switched 2G/3G voice.
And second, it will need to provide services that users genuinely want, to avoid becoming merely a cost incurred for a dying service carriers just can’t bear to let go. Call forwarding, video chat, unified voicemail boxes … these just don’t seem exciting enough to lure customers away from free services any time soon.