Are VoLTE and RCS Doomed to Compete?

I have been doing a lot of soul searching about RCS services (primarily Joyn) and it’s relation to the evolution of wireless voice to packets.

With VoLTE, it is really about the packet-ization of voice traffic. Considering how the network is designed, it is easy to assume that the voice traffic is converted to VoIP before it leaves the wireless core and goes out to the fiber network. So, VoLTE is really about the edge points becoming packetized voice in the device, and so the dance with VoLTE is not really about rich services - but the pragmatic side of trunking and capacity planning. On the other side of the equation we have the “Joyn” vision promoted by the GSMA and already available from MetroPCS in the U.S. In reality, this packet-ization can be done with signaling and can take place without need of a VoLTE infrastructure.

And RCS? Well, it is safe to say that it is the darling of a lot of our VoIP friends because it brings in all the Unified Communications bells and whistles we know and love such as Presence, Video, Social Networking, etc. 

So we have one – RCS -- that is very flashy, whereas the other cannot be a flash cut.

In VoLTE’s case, carriers can continue offering the same plain old wireless service [POWS?] without ever acknowledging that a transition has been made, while on the other hand, RCS means to be seen as a game changing new service.

Now here comes that ever-annoying question…what is the goal?

Regarding VoLTE, the answer for the network operator is pretty straightforward: network efficiency. This benefit is readily seen in savings on equipment and operation, all of which makes it all too easy to understand from the carrier perspective. Since the early days of fiber (and probably N Carrier) the aggregation to the network core has been a goal. Nothing about VoLTE has to impact the price of voice, which is still sold as a premium.

On the RCS side, the model quickly gets muddy. Is video charged out higher than voice? Does social media connect to the outside networks that can offer over-the-top solutions? Does the use of a client application represent a new subscription?

In laying out the framework for Joyn, a few assumptions are hidden. Since Joyn is a global Interconnection service, the suggestion is that the carriers want to regain some revenue for international settlements, though for many carriers I simply cannot believe they miss the exposure to billing discrepancies and fraud.

Additionally, the assumption is that they want to work together to offer services as oppose to partnering with the over-the-top clan. Meanwhile, anyone who has attended an AT&T developer’s event knows that they are awash in Facebook-love and would rather partner with them than deliver a service that puts them on par with their peers.

So we have two solutions that represent the future of the network, each with its own unique – and entirely different -- motivation.

In the long run, I suspect the Rich Communications side will be Balkanized by competing needs, while VoLTE will become more standardized - mainly because I cannot fathom carriers as Joyn-ers.