NextGen Voice

Top Telecom Companies Set Rules for Voice and SMS Services over LTE

By Jai C.S., TMCnet Contributor

Global telecom companies including AT&T, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon (News - Alert), Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia,

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sony Ericsson have reportedly developed a technical profile, also known as the One Voice initiative, to ensure the smooth introduction and delivery of voice and SMS services on Long Term Evolution networks worldwide.

 

The profile defines an optimal set of existing 3GPP-specified functionalities that all industry stakeholders, including network vendors, service providers and handset manufacturers, can use to offer compatible LTE voice solutions.

 

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert)-based solution, as defined by 3GPP, is said to be the most applicable approach to meeting the consumers' expectations for service quality, reliability and availability when moving from existing circuit switched telephony services to IP-based LTE (News - Alert) services.

 

This approach, as per the discussions, has laid the path to service convergence, since IMS is able to simultaneously serve broadband wireline and LTE wireless networks.

 

These top telecom companies who have set the rules said that by following the jointly defined technical profile, the industry can help guarantee international roaming and interoperability for LTE voice and SMS services, ensuring subscribers continuity of these vital services - all while offering service providers a smooth and well-defined path to LTE.

 

The group also said the objective of the initiative is to ensure the widest possible ecosystem for LTE and to avoid fragmentation of technical solutions.

 

Eventually, with this initiative, LTE is said to serve not only as a broadband access for increasing data traffic, but also for continuing voice and SMS services. With this, network operators can more quickly develop their customized LTE ecosystem in collaboration with both network equipment vendors and device manufacturers, said the global telecom companies.

 

To reassure the global interoperability in an LTE voice landscape and offer both broadband access, and telephony services over LTE, the telecom companies believe that it will create strong foundations for future business.

 

Reportedly, the profile for the initial solution has been finalized and is available through the companies associated. The objective is to hand over the profile and continue to work as per the existing industry forums.

Jai C.S. is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Jai's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Amy Tierney