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.