Singtel claims functionality first with VoLTE launch

In the latest of a spate of announcements relating to Voice over LTE, Singaporean incumbent Singtel has launched what it claims is the world’s first commercial and fully featured VoLTE service. The city state operator, which launched the service in partnership with Samsung and Ericsson, said that its 4G Clearvoice service is the only live VoLTE service offering features such as call waiting and call forwarding over an LTE network.

The service will be made available to existing LTE postpaid customers at no extra cost, the firm said, with minutes of use drawn from existing bundles.

Singtel’s vice president for consumer marketing said the launch pushed “the boundaries of innovation” and represented “a true breakthrough in the mobile industry.”

The firm also highlighted improvements in latency, promising that calls would be established in less than two seconds. And, while Singtel made no specific mention of HD voice, the announcement suggests that the enhanced audio solution is being launched alongside VoLTE. “Customers will enjoy pristine quality conversations that are significantly clearer than conventional mobile voice services. The service delivers a broader range of audio frequencies, resulting in richer and more true-to-life sound with noticeably reduced background noise,” the firm said.

The Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) handover solution, which moves calls seamlessly to the 3G network should the 4G connection be lost, is also supported.

The service will first be available to customers who own Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3, after a software update enabling VoLTE. Models sold from the beginning of June will have the update pre-installed, while Singtel said that other devices would receive the update “in the coming months.”

The launch comes following a week in which both Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and US carrier AT&T announced their own VoLTE launches.

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