As we watch newer, faster smartphones come to market, many of us may gloss over one of the original uses of the devices – phone calls. Manufacturers and carriers have not forgotten though and as they have been working to rollout 4G LTE services, they have realized they could shift voice traffic over to the LTE network, but not without some challenges. To address the situation, some carriers have been looking at moving voice traffic onto the LTE network using technology referred to as VoLTE, Voice over LTE. The problem is that LTE was designed to move data not voice. In addition, LTE currently does not carry SMS traffic which accounts for a large portion of the revenue stream. To make voice calls over LTE means the use of some type of VOIP technology to convert the voice call into data, which means more computing overhead and thus, more demands on a smartphone’s battery. This concept was found to be true in testing in late 2012. MetroPCS and LG have been working to improve this situation as revealed in the results of recent tests.
Spirent, a network testing firm, recently conducted comparative tests on the MetroPCS network with LG Spirit devices. They found the second generation devices’ power consumption showed a 35 percent improvement compared to the first generation when utilizing VoLTE. With the addition of higher capacity batteries, overall battery life improved by 122 percent, which puts the technology on par with current CDMA technology. Spirent also tested VOIP calls using Skype and found this used about one-third less power than regular voice calls.
The trend is certainly in the right direction for VoLTE implementation. Both Verizon and MetroPCS have announced plans to implement VoLTE in late 2013 or early 2014. Hopefully improvements will continue throughout the year so the new technology can hit the market with at least the same battery life expectations that we have all become accustomed to.
source: Spirent
via: PhoneArena.com
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