The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has confirmed that the number of commercial VoLTE deployments worldwide has reached 40.

This represents a major acceleration in operator VoLTE deployments as the technology becomes more proven, reliable and cost-effective. The data was included in the new Mobile HD voice Global Update report from the GSA, which also notes that 150 mobile operators in 87 countries have launched HD voice enabled by W-AMR technology, taking the total across all types of network to 185.

“The VoLTE market is advancing strongly and continues in 2015 as a main industry trend,” said Alan Hadden, VP of Research at the GSA. “

40 operators have launched HD voice service using VoLTE for their 4G/LTE customers in 28 countries, compared to only 16 VoLTE live systems 10 months ago.”

The GSA had previously confirmed that 111 operators are investing in VoLTE in 52 countries (deployments, trials, studies), and that 246 VoLTE-capable devices including 224 smartphones had been announced.

Total global LTE subs are now generally considered to have hit 1 billion as adoption continues to accelerate. “LTE technology is now being used by 1 in 8 mobile subscriptions by end September 2015,” said Hadden in a recent announcement. “The rate of LTE subscriptions growth has accelerated sharply. The first billion subs for LTE has probably now been reached.”