Spanish operator group Telefónica has succesfully demonstrated voice call continuity when handing over from LTE to 3G. The handover was achieved in Germany, through local subsidiary Telefónica Deutschland, in a test laboratory environment that the operator claims accurately simulated that of a real mobile network.

While there have been three launches of VoLTE technology in South Korea and the US, LTE networks are still not able to handover a VoLTE voice call to 2G or 3G.

Most services fall back to legacy 2G/3G networks whenever they make or receive a voice call. But Telefónica’s engineers in Germany have now demonstrated the SRVCC standard (Single Radio Voice Call Continuity), which successfully allows for the handover of a VoLTE call from the LTE network to 3G.

“Telefónica has achieved a significant landmark with the successful testing of this mobile broadband network for the future,” said Enrique Blanco, CTO of Telefónica.  “Most important, however, is our ability to deliver the very best customer experience – which is at the core to our long-term network strategy.  With VoLTE, our customers will be seamlessly connected to a superfast intelligent network that not only gives a top quality voice service – but also a network that opens up a new world of opportunities, such as high definition video calls”.

Telecoms.com Intelligence recently conducted a survey into operators’ plans for the implementation of VoLTE. Almost one quarter of respondents said that they had no plans to implement SRVCC at all. . However, 29.2 per cent said they would aim to implement it within six months of their VoLTE launch, 25.5 per cent within a year of launch and 21.7 per cent sometime after the first year of VoLTE operation.

The results of the survey will be published later this month.

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