The rush to facilitate voice-over-Wi-Fi for service providers continues with a partnership that will place Genband’s evolved packet gateway in Nokia Networks’ mobile broadband portfolio. The solution will be integrated into Nokia’s Liquid Core portfolio to support multimedia voice, data and video sessions.
Genband has been an early mover in the integration of Wi-Fi into its offerings for wireless carriers and equipment makers. The company’s newest wireless access gateway supports Hotspot 2.0 and adds standards-based EPDG functionality for untrusted public Wi-Fi access and S2a mobility over GTP gateway functionality for trusted carrier Wi-Fi access.
“With the evolution of voice and messaging services, like VoWiFi, the combination of Nokia’s and Genband’s solution is an effective way to ensure agility and flexibility for our customers,” said Thorsten Robrecht, VP of Nokia Networks.
Equipment providers are eager to help operators offload cellular traffic to Wi-Fi and offer voice-over-Wi-Fi as well. Last week Cisco announced the addition of HD voice to its Wi-Fi access points, saying that voice-over-Wi-Fi will be particularly attractive to smaller operators who do not have deep spectrum holdings or robust LTE networks.
Earlier this year Taqua purchased Kineto to facilitate voice-over-Wi-Fi for service providers. Taqua makes wireless gateways that include Wi-Fi connectivity, and Kineto makes the device-side clients that help users move from cellular to Wi-Fi networks.
