D2 Technologies and Sequans communications announced a voice-over-LTE reference solution that combines D2's mCue software client with Sequans' sQN3110 LTE baseband chip, which is the foundation for Sequans' second-generation Andromeda LTE platform for mobile devices.
The joint system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution is designed to deliver a turnkey design for OEMs and ODMs that want to add VoLTE and rich communications suite (RCS) capabilities to handsets, tablets and other mobile devices, said the companies.
D2 and Sequans said they will demonstrate live VoLTE calls using the solution via a Quanta reference tablet computer running through the Rohde & Schwarz CMW500 LTE and IMS communication tester during Mobile Asia Expo 2012 this week in Shanghai. A similar demo was conducted earlier this month at Computex Taipei.
"We are pleased with the results of our work with D2 that shows our VoLTE-ready technology running beautifully on D2's mCUE VoLTE platform," said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. "Voice over LTE is key for the future of LTE, and collaborations like ours with D2 will soon make it a commercial reality."
VoLTE service revenues are expected to reach $2 billion by 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 390 percent between 2012 and 2016, according to a recent report from ARCchart.
The number of devices supporting VoLTE will ramp up quickly, due in part to rabid competition from over-the-top VoIP providers such as Skype, FaceTime and Viber. "By 2016, we expect a total installed base of over 74 million VoLTE-enabled handsets will be present in the market. However, the OTT mobile VoIP market will also continue to maintain healthy growth," said ARCchart.
CDMA carriers--such as MetroPCS (NASDAQ:PCS), which hopes to launch VoLTE in the second half of this year--will drive VoLTE momentum because the CDMA standard, unlike WCDMA/GSM, does not support Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) technology, meaning LTE subscribers will have to use their LTE and CDMA radio interfaces concurrently, draining device battery life, said ARCchart.
For more:
- see this D2 release
- see this ARCchart release
- see this cellular-news article
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