UK telecom operator EE on Friday announced plans to launch VoLTE in early 2015 and HD Voice-over-Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi) services in late 2014.
EE’s new voice-over-Wi-Fi service will allow mobile users to make calls and send texts over Wi-Fi even without a signal.
Tom Bennett, EE’s director of network services, said that part of the motivation for providing voice-over-Wi-Fi is to provide service in areas that are currently not well served by EE’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks. This indicates the potential of Wi-Fi for telecom operators to connect more users.
Cisco Visual Networking Index on Wi-Fi
Cisco Visual Networking Index predicted that Wi-Fi is going to become important in providing offload for mobile devices and connectivity for a growing array of portable devices and M2M connections.
By 2018, the majority of traffic will originate from devices other than personal computers (PCs) for the first time in the history of the Internet. Wi-Fi traffic will exceed wired traffic for the first time and high-definition (HD) video will generate more traffic than standard definition (SD) video.
The Cisco report said Wi-Fi and mobile-connected devices will generate 61 percent of IP traffic by 2018. Wi-Fi will be 49 percent and cellular will be 12 percent. In comparison, Wi-Fi was 41 percent; cellular was 3 percent; and fixed was 56 percent in 2013.
Wi-Fi and mobile-connected devices will generate 76 percent of Internet traffic by 2018, Wi-Fi will be 61 percent and cellular will be 15 percent. In comparison, Wi-Fi was 55 percent; cellular was 4 percent; and fixed was 41 percent in 2013.
EE will be testing the Voice-over-Wi-Fi functionality to ensure selected services are meeting stringent Quality of Experience criteria. Services that do not meet these criteria on selected public Wi-Fi networks will be blocked.
The UK LTE operator is also working on enabling voice and text services over LTE 4G. Though around 3 million people subscribe to EE’s 4G network for data services, they currently have to drop to 3G or 2G when they make phone calls.
EE will begin testing 4G calling later in 2014, using the 800MHz spectrum acquired in last year’s auction. The trial will expand data and voice coverage, bringing service to a previously unconnected part of rural Oxfordshire.
Analysys Mason on EE plans
Analysys Mason says operator IP voice services will account for 25.6 billion minutes of voice calls in the UK in 2018 (20.2 percent of all voice calls carried by mobile operators in the UK).
“It is important that operators move to IP voice, which includes both VoLTE and and VoWi-Fi, to control costs, differentiate against OTT voice services such as Skype, and it improves the voice experience – EE is aiming to get their dropped call rate (DCR) below 0.5 percent nationally,” said Martin Scott, practice head for Analysys Mason’s Consumer Services research practice.
The launch of this service towards the end of 2014 will reduce costs for EE and should provide increased indoor service flexibility.
EE is using analytics to improve their network, having integrated a network quality checker into their My EE customer care app. This reports users’ locations when they are above ground and outside of EE coverage, on an anonymous aggregated basis, so that network engineers can subsequently optimize the network in such not spots.
This data is currently being collected for half a million EE customers that use the My EE app. “EE is treading on the right side of the careful line with this use of customers’ big data, ensuring that all data is at a low-enough resolution to maintain privacy, but a high-enough resolution to make some real differences to fine-tuning network coverage and reducing DCR,” said Scott of Analysys Mason.
Baburajan K
