Mumbai – February 7th 2014 – Tata Communications, a leading provider of A New World of Communications™, announces its network readiness to supply Voice over LTE calling (VoLTE) to its growing global community of IPX-connected service providers. VoLTE will allow mobile network operators to offer HD voice over their LTE / 4G networks and is seen as a key factor for the success of 4G customer uptake. Customers will benefit from near-instant call setup, better sound quality and the ability to have HD Voice conversations with more users outside the mobile-only community. 

VoLTE is viewed as a critical next step in continuing to deliver a high quality voice experience. It offers customers HD Voice, while enabling mobile network operators to operate on the basis of an all-IP infrastructure. This is significant in that it produces operational efficiencies and the required foundation for deploying new services, as well as integration for further applications aimed at improving user experience. 

For mobile network operators, the improved quality leads to increased usage, and ultimately, better revenues. Mobile voice quality issues are an ongoing concern for network operators and investing in VoLTE is set to greatly reduce customer churn and improve the customer experience. Analysts estimate that VoLTE services combined with OTT VoIP are set to become a $16 billion business by 2017.  

New capabilities to enable enhanced network readiness include, HD Voice support and interoperability between fixed and mobile networks, as well as SIP IMS support. This means that HD calls are no longer limited to VoLTE-to-VoLTE handsets, but to any HD-enabled user, including fixed. Tata Communications has also deployed new capabilities to detect whether a call is HD in order to route it in such a way that the core benefits and features of HD are projected outside of the mobile operator’s network.

Christian Michaud, SVP Product & Business Strategy, Global Voice Services, Tata Communications, says, “Our VoLTE offering enables mobile operators to generate additional revenue through increased usage, especially in high-margin roaming scenarios and international calling. Adding VoLTE to the portfolio also provides mobile operators with a potential competitive advantage over OTT providers, who may not be able to match the quality of experience. This is especially true as video calling over LTE will be the natural evolution of VoLTE.”

HD Voice is enabled by wideband codecs, with AMR-WB designed specifically for VoLTE, and mobile voice networks. Codec-aware routing allows Tata Communications to detect the codec being requested for the call as it is being setup and to automatically route according codec-specific rules and logic. Tata Communications’ IPX+ community, the growing wholly-owned private IP-connected community of service providers, presents a large platform for HD calls with a global reach, making Tata Communications an ideal choice for operators with VoLTE ambitions.