Carrier Wrap: Verizon Wireless set for VoLTE launch; T-Mobile US continues tweaking

Verizon Wireless is set to launch its voice over LTE service in the coming weeks, according to multiple reports. The offering will take advantage of the carrier’s IP-based data network to transmit both voice calls and video calls.
The carrier showed off the service to reporters, noting that pricing for the offering would be included in a customer’s rate plan. Voice calls using the VoLTE service would come from traditional voice bucket minutes, while video calls placed over the service would come from a customer’s data allotment. To tap into the service, Verizon Wireless customers on both ends of the conversation will need to have VoLTE-enabled devices and both be in an LTE coverage area. Verizon Wireless has noted that its LTE network currently covers more than 305 million potential customers, or nearly the same as its legacy CDMA network.
Rivals AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile US have already launched limited VoLTE services, though currently the offerings are not compatible across carriers.
The move to VoLTE is expected to allow wireless carriers to transmit voice traffic more efficiently and eventually shutter legacy 2G and 3G networks that are currently burdened with carrying all voice traffic and a good portion of data traffic. Analysts noted in an RCR Wireless News report last year that carriers could achieve up to 40% more spectral efficiency running voice traffic over their LTE networks compared with legacy systems.
Verizon Wireless was one of the first domestic carriers to throw its support behind VoLTE, becoming a founding member in early 2010 of GSMA’s attempt to set a standard for the technology. The carrier quickly followed that move up with claims of a successful VoLTE test call in early 2011. However, further testing appeared to be rife with challenges as the carrier was forced to push back original 2013 deployment plans. Those challenges seem to have been, or at least nearly, tackled as Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam recently told attendees at an investor conference that he had been carrying around a VoLTE-enabled handset to help with testing.
—T-Mobile US continued to tweak its service plans, today announcing plans to increase the amount of included data when consumers add a tablet device and expanding its family plans to now include up to 10 lines per account.
The tablet offer will allow customers to add a tablet device to their current Simple Choice rate plan for $10 per month, with that new line also receiving the same amount of data that is currently being purchased for the original line of service. That tablet device will also receive the 200 megabytes of free data T-Mobile US offers to any customer activating a tablet on its network.
The family plan change now allows customers to sign up to 10 lines of service to a single account, with each additional line after the first two priced at $10 per line. All lines on a Simple Choice family account receive unlimited voice calling, messaging and a standard one gigabyte of data. T-Mobile US had previously reserved the ability to add 10 lines of service to a single account to larger enterprise customers.
The move also follows Sprint’s recent adjustment to its family plan offer that has allowed customers to add up to 10 lines of service to a single account.
—China’s No. 3 wireless operator China Telecom is currently running a trial of a pre-commercial LTE multicast service as part of the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. The trial is being conducted with technology partner Huawei.
The service taps into the LTE evolved multimedia broadcast/multicast capabilities to stream video content. The capabilities are designed to allow wireless carriers to more efficiently stream high-bandwidth video content to enabled devices. China Telecom said it has provided 18,000 Huawei-produced devices for the event.
U.S. operators have been trialing similar technology, including Verizon Wireless during this year’s Indy 500 event using network equipment from Ericsson; Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 devices embedded with Multicast chips, middleware and multimedia services from Qualcomm; additional tablets from Sequans; middleware from Expway; and application development and content management from MobiTV.
—Mobile virtual network operator FreedomPop is reportedly the target of an acquisition attempt by a “major carrier,” according to Fierce Wireless. The report notes that the MVNO has received interest from unnamed interested parties.
FreedomPop launched in late 2012, offering customers “free” mobile broadband services. The company last year added support for smartphones, with free plans that provide 200 voice minutes, 500 text messages and 500 megabytes of data per month. Customers can “upgrade” to unlimited voice calling, text messaging, voicemail and 500 MB of data for $11 per month; for a one-year period for a one-time price of $80 (an average of $6.67 per month); or for two years of service for a one-time $110 payment (an average of $4.58 per month). The service runs across Sprint’s LTE and CDMA networks, and FreedomPop recently added support for Apple’s iPhone 5 smartphone.
FreedomPop claimed it had surpassed 500,000 users earlier this year, with predictions that it will surpass 1 million users by the end of this year. FreedomPop CEO and co-founder Stephen Stokols demonstrated the company’s wares at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

—South Korea’s telecom regulator reportedly levied approximately $57 million in fines against the country’s three largest wireless operators, charging them with offering illegal device subsidies to consumers. The operators fined included SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus.
SK Telecom and KT have also been required to stop selling services for one week as part of the penalty. Regulators had previously fined the companies more than $100 million late last year for similar illegal subsidies.
Additional carrier news can be found on the RCR Wireless News “Carriers” page.
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