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May 21, 2014

Verizon's VoLTE Announcement

Verizon posted "Details VoLTE Rollout Plans" today, May 20, on its website that effectively said nothing.   The company hit a new low in its embarrassing history with Voice over LTE (VoLTE), apparently panicked by AT&T's limited VoLTE rollout starting on May 23. When will this madness stop?

According to the "details," Verizon will roll out VoLTE on its nationwide network "later this year."  If that wasn't specific enough, the headline of the posting said the "New calling experience to available nationwide in coming months."

Throughout last year, Verizon executives were making public statements of VoLTE being rolled out sometime in 2013, followed by sometime in 2014.  I'm baffled to think why putting an announcement on the website with the same "coming months" being uttered by senior Verizon executives in public forums makes its VoLTE plans somehow more real.

Let me be clear: There is no announced deployment date or timeframe other than "coming months" and "later this year" for Verizon's VoLTE deployment.  There is no discussion of what Verizon market or markets will first get VoLTE service.

Adding to the non-announcement announcement, Verizon says "the company will have a robust line-up of VoLTE-enabled smartphones available when the service launches."  OK... so, haven't you been demonstrating VoLTE smartphones at Mobile World Congress since 2012? What's the difference between that hardware and the "VoLTE-enabled" phones you'll be selling now.

Verizon has been flogging this non-announcement via its official Twitter channels throughout the day, with up to eight different accounts either tweeting or re-tweeting with the #HDvoice and #VoLTE tags, effectively saturating Twitter.

The cellular carrier does add some information over and above AT&T's rollout by saying "more and more customers across the country will be able to use VoLTE as select handsets will be VoLTE-enabled through a software update leading up to the roll out of the service, with new devices VoLTE-enabled at the time of purchase later this year."

AT&T hasn't said what existing customer phones might get a software upgrade to support VoLTE, only highlighting the somewhat un-sexy Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini as its "first" VoLTE phone.  One might think that any of the other recent Samsung Galaxy phones might be VoLTE capable with a firmware upgrade, as well as most Android phones in general.

On the other hand, not "supporting" older phones provides an opportunity for a carrier to sell new phones and lock customers into new two year contracts.  Am I cynical at the upsell opportunities being generated at this point? Yes, yes, I am.

I would welcome T-Mobile US to discuss its "details" for a VoLTE rollout.  Could the Un-carrier match or beat Verizon out the door with a VoLTE rollout this fall? At this point, I'm willing to say anything is possible. 




Edited by Maurice Nagle


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