The number of VoLTE connections is expected to reach 2 billion — against an estimated 123 million in 2015 — creating $100 billion revenue by 2020, according to Juniper Research.

Far East and China will account for more than 50 percent of the global VoLTE connections by 2020, said the report. VoLTE services will account for over $100 billion in annual service revenue by 2020.

China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom are investing in LTE networks. Though Indian telecoms such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone and Reliance Jio Infocomm will be making investment in LTE networks, there have not yet given special attention to VoLTE.

Though direct revenues from VoLTE will be limited at first, the increased availability of handsets will be driving adoption of the technology. Telecom network operators will initially focus on experience and quality of service, rather than monetization.

Telecom operators are also investing in Wi-Fi calling (VoWi-Fi) to tackle the internal coverage issue. Operators are launching the Wi-Fi calling service to add value to customers with little investment, where VoLTE is focused on operator network efficiency.

Telecom operators will be forced to offer HD Voice service as part of an important business strategy to compete with OTT players. For instance, Facebook Messenger, which recently launched free HD (High Definition) VoIP call services over cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

More than 130 telecom operators worldwide are offering mobile HD Voice. Juniper Research expects the number of capable devices to grow to over 1.3 billion by 2020, driven by manufacturer adoption and operator capability.

Baburajan K
[email protected]