TIM launches VoLTE, LTE-A and free data offer across Italy

TIM, the new name for Telecom Italia, has announced its launch of voice over LTE and LTE-A services across the county.

The operator has clarified that it is early days for the HD voice service, and said new functionality will be added in the not too distant future.

“The service will later be extended to other offerings in the portfolio… and will be enriched by new options such as high-definition video, the sharing of video, images and maps in real-time chat and file transfer,” the telco said.

Aside from HD voice and lower levels of latency users experience when making a call, one of the other primary benefits of VoLTE is that it removes the need for 3G fallback when LTE users make a call. Traditionally, users will use 4G/LTE services, but the device will need to hop onto the 2G/3G network to make the call. As a consequence, 4G services aren’t useable for the duration of any calls being made.  To that extent, TIM said its service “VOCE 4G” (“Voice 4G”) will allow users to surf the internet and utilise their favourite apps without interrupting the call.

Meanwhile, the telco has also announced the launch of its LTE-A service, “4G Plus”.  By utilising Three Carrier Aggregation technology, TIM claims it can provide 300Mbps mobile download speeds across eight Italian cities to users.

Finally, to encourage users into using each new feature, TIM has dovetailed the two launches with an incentivised free gigabyte of 4G data over Christmas. “Natale Giga Gratis” will give users the free data just by downloading the TIM mobile app.

“‘VOICE 4G’ and ‘Christmas Giga free’ enrich the offerings of Telecom Italy, united under the single TIM brand, in order to meet the needs of all customers and to new digital consumption,” said the telco.