Nokia Networks completes VoLTE trial with Zain

Kuwaiti operator Zain said it completed that country’s first voice over LTE call with network partner Nokia Networks and using Zain’s commercial LTE network.
The call included the use of both high-definition voice and video capabilities using Nokia Networks’ VoLTE platform. The call showed simultaneous use of both voice and data services over the LTE network. The Nokia Networks platform includes its IP multimedia subsystem, Subscriber Data Management and Open Telecommunications Application Server, which offer “supplementary services that are applicable for voice, messaging and video sessions for subscribers in LTE and other broadband networks.”

The VoLTE demonstration builds on a recent deal between the two companies for Nokia Networks to provide its operating systems support platform for the operator. The contract calls for Nokia to provide its OSS portfolio and services, including its NetAct Advanced Monitor fault management platform; Performance Manager platform as a single point of access for network insight; and its IP fault management platform that includes EMC Smarts, EMC Watch4Net and EMC Network Configuration Manager.
The mobile industry is looking to roll out VoLTE services to allow wireless carriers to consolidate their voice and data operations across a single network. Currently, wireless operators are running voice and text messaging services over their legacy 2G and 3G networks, while attempting to run most of their data traffic over the more spectrally efficient LTE network. However, VoLTE deployments have run into some delays as the technology to convert the voice traffic into data packets with quality matching that of current circuit-switched voice traffic has lagged.
T-Mobile US last week announced it had expanded its VoLTE service to 15 total “markets,” following up on the initial launch of services in Seattle last month. T-Mobile US CTO Neville Ray also touted that the VoLTE offering provides a 23.85 kilobit per second voice codec rate for the HD Voice-enabled service, as well as faster call set-up times than a traditional circuit-switched voice call.
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