Deutsche Telekom and partners announced the completion of the world’s first 5G Voice over New Radio (VoNR) call in a multi-vendor environment.
The partners verified the capability over a 5G Standalone (SA) network with voice and 5G data sessions in parallel during the innovation trial in Warsaw, Poland.
This network setup integrated a 5G Core from Ericsson and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) from Nokia. The calls were completed on terminals from Samsung and Xiaomi and a Mobile Test Platform from Qualcomm. This innovation milestone is an important step towards the commercial introduction of seamless native 5G voice services in Deutsche Telekom networks.
In cloud -native 5G SA networks, operators will be able to deliver high quality voice services without having to rely on LTE as anchor. The addition of VoNR to the superior data transmission quality of 5G technology will allow customers to enjoy voice and data services in parallel.
VoNR is expected to play a role in many data services enabled by 5G, from enhancements to voice quality in existing services to completely new services around immersive video conferencing and augmented or virtual reality, says Alex Choi, SVP Strategy & Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom.
Jan Karlsson, Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Services, Ericsson, says, “The end-to-end 5G voice over NR going live with the first call in Deutsche Telekom network demonstrates the strength of our cloud native 5G Core network for standalone 5G networks.”
“5G strategies must include a plan for embedding voice into 5G services, and the IMS core will be key for this. Our participation in this successful trial is the latest validation reflecting the strong capabilities of the Nokia IP Multimedia Subsystem and Telephony Application Server,” Marc Erhardt, Head of Cloud and Network Services in the Customer Team Deutsche Telekom, Nokia, said.
Enrico Salvatori, president, Qualcomm Europe, said: “Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G and the 5G smartphone form factor test device used in this activity are powered by Snapdragon 780G and 888 5G Mobile Platforms with Snapdragon 5G Modem-RF Systems respectively which support a range of 5G capabilities including both 5G VoNR and 5G SA.”
Deutsche Telekom, together with Nokia and Ericsson, has established the 5G Standalone network infrastructure in test mode at Deutsche Telekom’s lab in Warsaw, Poland, where testing and engineering is conducted on behalf of the entire Group.
The setup includes the integration of a 5G Core (5GC) from Ericsson and an IP Multimedia Subsystem from Nokia, whereby the IMS core provides voice as a 5G application service. The transmission was tested over 5G NR Standalone (SA) Radio Access Technology from both Ericsson and Nokia. The voice calls were completed using the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G, Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G, and a 5G smartphone form factor test device powered by the Snapdragon 780G and 888 5G Mobile Platforms with Snapdragon 5G Modem-RF Systems.
