Voice and SMS over LTE

My First LTE Phone

<dream sequence…  a few years in the future...>

I walk into my local mobile shop.

There it is, front and center.  The future of mobile communications, the industry’s first LTE-enabled iPhone. 

We all remember how iPhone changed mobile communications with 3G.  Now with LTE, the iPhone is poised to once again move the entire mobile industry forward.   With a  huge, brilliant display and high definition video camera, the phone is the most technologically advanced mobile phone ever created.

Expectations are high.  For months we’ve been hearing about the lightening fast data rates of LTE and how the iPhone is uniquely able to benefit.  Stream HD TV direct to the phone; and finally… real video calling with simultaneous voice/video.

The Sales Person sees me drooling on the phone, pawing to free it from the security cable holding it to the counter, and comes over to answer some questions.

[SP]  So, you’re interested in the new LTE iPhone?

[me]  Yeah, who isn’t?  It’s awesome.

[SP]  Yes it is.  Let me show you how the streaming video works.

Starts streaming an HD video clip…

[SP]  The video is comes from the network or from your home DVR.

[me]  Really?  That’s what I’ve always wanted from mobile video.  My content from my DVR delivered to my phone.

[SP]  Yep, this phone really brings the vision of ‘Three Screens’ to life.

[me]  Cool, well, let me make a call.

The Sales Person sheepishly hands me the phone, and begins to look quietly at their feet.

I pull up the dial pad in a second window and the video screen is minimized.

I dial a phone number and press send.

Suddenly the video screen goes away and the LTE icon disappears…

[me]  What happened?

[SP]  Ummm… well, our network uses something called ‘CS Fallback’.  It keeps voice calls off the LTE network.  So the phone needs to end the video stream and jump back to the GSM network.

[me]  Are you kidding me?

[SP]  …

I hold the phone away from my ear and look at the screen quizzically. 

[me]  Why is it taking so long to connect?

[SP]  Well…  it takes a bit longer to connect the call because the phone needs to pause all the LTE activity, connect to the GSM network, and then set up the call.

[me]  Unbelievable.  The fastest mobile network ever and it’s slower than GSM to place a call.

I hang up the call and hand the phone back to the sales rep.

Looking to save the sale, the SP optimistically says:

[SP]  Here, let me show you how video calling works.

[me]  Oh, excellent.  I’ve always wanted video calling, mostly the ‘see what I see’ capability.  I was pretty sure an LTE iPhone could do it.

The SP fiddles with the phone and then hands it back to me.

I notice that I have video and audio, but it’s in a Skype window.

[me]  Cool, this is awesome.  But why is it Skype and not a mobile operator service.

[SP]  Yeah… well… with CS Fallback we can’t do simultaneous voice and data over LTE.  But this is something Skype has supported for a while….

And then I’m awake… awash in a cold sweat… struggling to understand why the mobile industry would voluntarily subject itself to CS Fallback. 

NOTE:  If you can’t tell, I am dreaming of an LTE iPhone, but that’s all it is, a dream.  I have no knowledge that Apple is developing one.  I suspect they will, because LTE is truly the network where the iPhone can take the mobile industry to the next level, as long as it isn’t handicapped by CS Fallback.  

We can do better than CSFB

I just completed a whirlwind set of meetings in  London (always pleasant in the summer…)

During the meetings, there were quite a few positive comments about VoLGA. 

VoLGA has become a viable voice over LTE technology, superior to CS Fallback, and designed to provide a better path to the longer term solution of IMS telephony. 

What struck me, however, the near-unanimous consensus around CS Fallback… that it is sub-optimal (rubbish?).  In the majority of my meetings, people would sheepishly agree that CSFB was hastily conceived and poorly structured.  As we discussed shortcomings, it was pretty obvious that the technology was actually a step back (a ‘fall back’?) for the mobile industry. 

In one meeting, an industry insider suggested that if VoLGA had been around a year earlier, CS Fallback probably wouldn’t even exist. 

So I say, does anyone really believe CS Fallback is the best we can do?  Certainly LTE phones are a few years away (there are more immediate issues with embedded SMS for data-only LTE).  Rather than sitting back and resting on our ‘accomplishments’ with CSFB, let’s address what is obviously a problem today, provide a clear path for handset vendors to support voice over LTE, and provide operators a viable solution for their primarily revenue generating services, and actually move the mobile industry forward.

Mobile VoIP for LTE

There have been two articles recently on Mobile VoIP.  The first article, released to support Heavy Reading’s new Mobile VoIP report, quotes analyst John Blau saying mobile VoIP is “an unstoppable train”.  Blau writes that mobile VoIP is coming whether operators like it or not.

In LTE, this is exceptionally true, giving the low latency and high bandwidth of the mobile industry’s most efficient mobile network.  Leaving voice service off LTE is inviting competition from a raft of third party providers.  

The second article is from technology pragmatist Om Malik, whose story is titled “Are Carriers Changing their Tune on Mobile VoIP?”

Om points out that operators are moving away from draconian ‘block everything’ policies and are beginning to accept that their consumers may want a Mobile VoIP service set.  

For operators deploying LTE, this ‘Mobile VoIP’ service can be derived from their existing mobile voice infrastructure through VoLGA.  

With VoLGA, mobile operators can deliver their primary revenue generating services (voice and SMS) as a Mobile VoIP offer with LTE from day 1.  

One on One: Franz Seiser Talks VoLGA

I recently had a chance to sit down with Franz Seiser, head of core network architecture for Deutsche Telekom, formerly T-Mobile International, to chat about voice and SMS over the LTE network. We discussed the evolution of LTE as it leads the industry down the path to IMS. Franz said that the industry consensus today is that IMS will be the longer-term solution, but it is still a ways off. An interim solution is necessary. Watch the video in which Franz and I briefly discuss steps and roadblocks to IMS; options for voice and SMS over LTE; and advantages for VoLGA.

Wireless Week Covers Voice over LTE

Wireless Week’s Maisie Ramsay posted an excellent piece on Voice over LTE this weekend.  

ABI Research’s LTE analyst Nadine Manjaro was quoted saying “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.”  

Yankee Group’s Brian Partridge went on to say “I see [VoLGA] as being the most viable way forward that doesn’t require a re-architecture of the network.  It’s a very low cost method of getting voice and SMS - the two highest drivers of revenue - onto the LTE network.”

Looks like the word is getting out on VoLGA.