Global Telecom Companies Announce A Standards Based Solution For Voice And SMS Services Over LTE

11/04/2009

DALLAS - AT&T*, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Sony Ericsson have defined the preferred way to ensure the smooth introduction and delivery of voice and SMS services on Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks worldwide.

The above telecommunications industry leaders have jointly developed a technical profile for LTE voice and SMS services, also known as the One Voice initiative. The profile defines an optimal set of existing 3GPP-specified functionalities that all industry stakeholders, including network vendors, service providers and handset manufacturers, can use to offer compatible LTE voice solutions.

Open collaborative discussions have concluded that the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based solution, as defined by 3GPP, is the most applicable approach to meeting the consumers' expectations for service quality, reliability and availability when moving from existing circuit switched telephony services to IP-based LTE services. This approach will also open the path to service convergence, as IMS is able to simultaneously serve broadband wireline and LTE wireless networks.

By following the jointly defined technical profile, the industry can help guarantee international roaming and interoperability for LTE voice and SMS services, ensuring subscribers continuity of these vital services - all while offering service providers a smooth and well-defined path to LTE.

The objective of the initiative is to ensure the widest possible ecosystem for LTE and to avoid fragmentation of technical solutions. LTE will, with this initiative, not only serve as a broadband access for increasing data traffic, but also for continuing voice and SMS services. Network operators will be able to more quickly develop their customized LTE ecosystem in collaboration with both network equipment vendors and device manufacturers. In addition, the reassurance of global interoperability in an LTE voice landscape and the ability to offer both broadband access and telephony services over LTE will create strong foundations for future business.

The profile for the initial solution has been finalized and is available through the companies associated with this press release. The objective is to hand over the profile and continuing work to existing industry forums.

To view the technical profile, please visit http://news.vzw.com/OneVoiceProfile.pdf [1].

Media Enquiries

AT&T
Jenny Bridges
Phone : +1 214 665 1317
e-mail: jbridges@attnews.us [2]

Orange
Press office
Phone: +33 1 44 44 93 93
e-mail: service.presse@orange-ftgroup.com [3]

Telefonica
Press Office
Phone : +34 91 482 3800
e-mail: prensa@telefonica.es [4]

TeliaSonera
Carina Axelsson
Phone : +46 70 676 84 84
e-mail: carina.axelsson@teliasonera.com [5]

Verizon
Jeffrey Nelson
Phone : +1 917 968 9175
e-mail: jeffrey.nelson@verizonwireless.com [6]

Vodafone
Mark Street
Phone : +44 (0)1635 664444
e-mail: mark.street@vodafone.com [7]

Alcatel-Lucent
Wim Van Daele
Phone: +32 3 240 46 01
e-mail: wim.van_daele@alcatel-lucent.com [8]

Ericsson
Minako Nakatsuma Olofzon
Phone : +46 10 714 3864
e-mail: press.relations@ericsson.com [9]

Nokia Siemens Networks
Kent Tankersley
Phone : +358 40 5483763
e-mail: kent.tankersley@nsn.com [10]

Nokia
Nokia Press Services
Tel +358 7180 34900
Email: press.services@nokia.com [11]

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
Yeonhee Park
Phone: +82 31 277 1099
e-mail: yeony.park@samsung.com [12]

Sony Ericsson
Mattias Holm
Phone : +44 796 1974 048
e-mail: mattias.holm@sonyericsson.com [13]

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.