There's been a lot of media chatter over the past two weeks with AT&T and Verizon continuing to swear allegiance to Voice over LTE (VoLTE), both vowing to deliver the technology really, really soon. However, each company brings their own failings to the HD voice arena. To borrow a phrase from Great Britain: We are not impressed.
AT&T says it will introduce VoLTE in the second half of 2013. That's good, but there's AT&T's non-embrace of HD voice on its existing GSM/HSPA network infrastructure. Industry insiders familiar with AT&T's infrastructure have said that the company could have long ago (well, at least a couple of years) rolled out HD voice with nothing more than a software upgrade in its core network.
It's not that hard. T-Mobile USA did it without breaking a sweat last year, using essentially the same network and handsets, when it became the first American carrier to deliver HD voice. Sources within AT&T say the company hasn't implemented HD voice because of spectrum concerns. I can believe that because AT&T makes money off of metered data usage, so anything that might impinge upon that cash cow would likely be avoided.
AT&T also has the same underlying mindset as Verizon when it comes to legacy networks and LTE: Let's get customers off the old network as soon as possible so we can shut down that patchwork of gear, then we can turn around and refarm the spectrum for more data. Since Verizon is dealing with CDMA and all of its headaches, sooner is better.
Verizon has been talking up VoLTE for several years. The latest statements out of the company target late 2013 or early 2014, with some executives pointing to marketing plans potentially holding up a nationwide rollout until next year.
Say what?
Verizon has known it will be rolling out VoLTE for years, but now that the network will be ready by the end of 2013, the company may not rollout the service until 2014 because of marketing? Really? Seriously?
AT&T will already have VoLTE rolled out in the second half of 2013 and the carrier has been pretty steady in that regard. T-Mobile USA already has HD voice on its network and will be bringing out VoLTE as soon as it gets enough LTE turned up to make it worthwhile. Against this background and multiple years of getting ready for VoLTE, Verizon's marketing people are (allegedly) still working out marketing plans?
About the only true mystery to me is why nobody at Verizon has become unemployed due to the numerous delays with deploying VoLTE. All three South Korean carriers managed to turn it on last year and AT&T will deploy VoLTE before Verizon -- this despite Verizon's lead in deploying a nationwide LTE network and demonstrating VoLTE in network configurations at Mobile World Congress dating back a couple of years.
(We will not speak of Sprint. HD voice looks to be a repeat of its promises on WiMAX, without the complications of Clearwire management).
Maybe I'll learn something different at CTIA in Las Vegas next week, but I doubt it. I'll believe VoLTE works when I hear it on my mobile phone.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey 
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