It appears that the next big thing in the telecommunications market is going to be VoLTE, if recent competition between some telecom giants is any indication. Earlier this week, Verizon (News - Alert) announced its plans to roll out a VoLTE network, and now AT&T is on the cusp of rolling out a network of its own. The second-largest wireless carrier in the United States appears to be the first to offer the service up, and that could be a game changer in this particular sector.
AT&T’s Voice over LTE (News - Alert) network has been tapped to work with its HD voice offerings and that means it is also the first company that is offering up VoLTE for high definition voice services. The HD voice offering AT&T (News - Alert) has hosted has the promise of crisp call quality with substantially less background noise than people get with traditional VoIP.
In general, traditional VoIP calls have been transmitted at a rather unimpressive 300 Hz to 3.4 kHz. HD Voice is able to offer those same phone calls at 50 Hz to 7kHz and those numbers could go even higher in the very near future. This means high definition calls can now be brought to the regular old handset with customers having to do anything different than they are now.
Technology analyst Jeff Kagan talked to the NewsFactor Business Report and said he believes all major carriers are going to be offering this kind of solution in the very near future. “AT&T appears to be the first to market,” Kagan said. “High definition voice will be very important going forward on all-IP, voice over LTE. It lets customers talk and surf the Web at high speeds at the same time over an Internet or IP network.”
At the moment, the market for HD voice isn’t all that overwhelming simply because it is relatively new. As more people and businesses adopt the technology, it’s a safe bet the tech will become more popular fairly quickly.
Edited by Alisen Downey