It’s been reported today, announced by Verizon, confirmed by Verizon Chief Technology Officer Tony Melone, that Verizon had officially completed the world’s first successful voice over LTE call on a commercial LTE network. This was a live, IMS-based VoLTE (voice over LTE) call on Tuesday, February 8th, 2011, in the morning at 9:45 AM ET. This call was made by Balaji Raghavachari, manager of technology for Verizon Wireless, with none other than an LG Revolution 4G which we of course got a quick look at during CES 2011.
This phone call was received by Sanyogita Shamsunder, director of technology for Verizon Wireless. What’s this mean? It basically means voice and data at the same time for Verizon forever. This wasn’t the first EVER call over LTE, in fact the initiative was launched over a year ago by GSMA, who indeed did make the very first call. Verizon made the very first call on a commercial network. All phones involved thus far have been working on Android 2.2 Froyo. See full press release below:
VERIZON WIRELESS ANNOUNCES WORLD’S FIRST SUCCESSFUL VOICE OVER LTE CALL ON A COMMERCIAL LTE NETWORK
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Verizon Chief Technology Officer Tony Melone has confirmed that the company’s technologists placed a live, IMS-based VoLTE (Voice over LTE) call over its commercial network on Wednesday morning. This takes VoLTE calling from a lab environment to a commercial network for the first time anywhere on the globe.
The initial call was placed at 9:54 a.m. ET Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011 by Balaji Raghavachari, manager of technology for Verizon Wireless, using a LG Revolution 4G smartphone. The call originated at Verizon headquarters in Basking Ridge, N.J. and was received by Sanyogita Shamsunder, director of technology for Verizon Wireless, who was also on a LG Revolution 4G smartphone in Basking Ridge. The initial call was 33 seconds in duration. During additional calls made that morning, the technologists were able to browse the Web and use other data services while participating in voice calls.
Melone said, “Today is another proof point that the LTE ecosystem is alive, healthy and thriving. VoLTE will quickly become the global standard for delivering voice over LTE networks.”
“The GSMA launched a voice over LTE initiative a year ago with the aim of driving a single, industry-wide solution for voice and messaging services via IP,” said Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer at the GSMA. “We commend Verizon Wireless for helping to make this a reality by conducting the world’s first voice call over a commercial LTE network. The progress made by the GSMA, its members, and in particular Verizon Wireless, to enable this functionality will play a crucial role in driving strong momentum and vast economies of scale for LTE all over the world.”
Subsequent test calls lasted more than 10 minutes. Technologists browsed the Web, participated in chats and downloaded applications from the Android Market™ while on a voice call. The LG Revolution smartphones were running on the Android 2.2 platform.
Verizon Wireless plans to enhance VoLTE with rich communications services and optimize performance on its commercial 4G LTE network during 2011. Commercial services are expected to be available in 2012.
