Previous reports pegged voice-over LTE support as coming to Verizon Wireless in 2013, however based on new details it is now looking as if that support will not be arriving until next year. These latest details come by way of Verizon CFO Fran Shammo who said the voice-over LTE support would be launching commercially in “early next year.”
While that may sound like a bit of bad news for anyone that may have been waiting, there does appear to be a silver lining. It seems Verizon is readying voice-over LTE capable devices for the later part of this year. Shammo didn’t offer specifics here, however based on details from Light Reading, Verizon will “start to have VoLTE-capable phones by the end of this year.”
Basically, that is just to say that devices should be ready and available before the launch of the network. This move will not really mean all that much for the average user initially, but longer term they will likely notice some changes. These changes will come to the types of devices that consumers begin seeing.
In this case, given the voice-over LTE support allows for voice calls alongside data on the 4G network, we will begin seeing devices without any 3G CDMA chips. The introduction of voice-over LTE is a baby step towards the eventual reuse of the current 3G network. Of course, that will likely not be happening anytime soon. Otherwise, AT&T has also said they are planning to have a limited launch of voice-over LTE in place for later this year.
[via phoneArena]
