After months of waiting, the U.S. market was rewarded with its first Voice over LTE debut when MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) in August started commercially selling its first VoLTE device, the LG Connect 4G smartphone. The company said more VoLTE devices are coming in the fourth quarter of the year.
This news was a breakthrough because many in the U.S. have been anxiously awaiting the first rollout of VoLTE. The service is expected to allow operators to incorporate new applications into traditional voice service such as video calling. And for application developers, the rise of VoLTE means they will be able to more easily and quickly integrate voice into their applications.
Analysts also predict additional advantages to VoLTE. For example, VoLTE is expected to make video services more efficient. And for some savvy operators, VoLTE could ultimately lead to less churn among customers and more revenue.
For example, operators that are seeing a decline in average revenue per user due to the commoditization of voice may see their voice revenues stabilize thanks to VoLTE. And those that come up with interesting solutions that incorporate VoLTE into other applications may even see revenues increase.
Of course, there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to VoLTE. MetroPCS is in the early stages of its deployment so it's difficult to predict just how much traction the new service will generate among consumers.
FierceWireless delved into all the angles of the VoLTE debate in this new ebook, "The next-generation of voice: VoLTE." In it, we look at what VoLTE means for the operators, the device makers and even potential over-the-top players. Thanks for reading. --Sue