Deliver native VoLTE voice for roamers before your customers jump ship

VoLTE-enabled devices are now part of our daily environment. So, why isn’t VoLTE roaming also ubiquitous?

In March 2020, GSA reckoned there were 2,610 devices in its GAMBoD database that supported VoLTE technology – of which 85% are phones. And, as Ericsson points out in its latest  Voice and communication services trends and outlook, there are already over 3,000 VoLTE-enabled device types already out there on the market—cell/mobile and fixed wireless access phones of course, but also indoor and outdoor CPE (customer premises equipment) devices, tablet PCs and smart watches.

What’s more, over 100 service provider networks support cellular smartwatches enabled with voice services alone, for instance. Despite this, international roaming has – with a few honourable exceptions – still not been established for VoLTE services.

Billions of LTE (and soon 5G) enabled devices that really want to interoperate

The same analysis estimates that the number of IMS voice subscriptions is estimated to exceed 3.8 billion at the end of 2021, then almost double to 6.8 billion by the end of 2026, and end up accounting for nine out of ten of all combined LTE and 5G subscriptions. As you’ll know, IP Multimedia Subsystem has become the main network solution that enables voice, video calling, SMS, rich communications services, and new communication services.

Recent years have seen a surge in operators adopting the voice service optimised specifically for IMS: VoLTE. However, they have largely avoided enabling roaming for this service – denying customers the experience they give them in their home networks. Isn’t it rather crazy that all those billions of subscribers can’t use native VoLTE voice when roaming? It’s still a surprise, when you consider that it’s the minority of devices that aren’t VoLTE capable?

All of which means that, instead of continuing to enjoy a High-Definition native voice service while roaming, operators drop users back to legacy 3- and 2G voice. At some point very soon, we’re going to have a problem here. To reiterate, if users – that are accustomed to a high-quality service start noticing that it just doesn’t work when travelling abroad, they may start to vote with their wallets. At a time of margin pressure on classical mobile services, this seems a considerable oversight.

And, there’s another factor. Soon, the legacy networks on which circuit-switched voice depend are going to be retired. This is happening now – so what will happen when your customers do roam – and find that calling home is now impossible?

When travel between European countries resumes – which it will, soon, people may just start to notice – and in a year or two, the problem will be real and present. If VoLTE roaming works between the US and Canada, for example, why can’t it be delivered elsewhere?

The bottom line is that almost everyone now has a VoLTE-enabled device of some kind but can’t use those VoLTE services abroad. Why hasn’t the ecosystem adapted to embrace this? What an oversight, indeed; but surely, it’s an oversight that now must be rectified.

Let’s make it easy for you to start supporting VoLTE roaming

Enghouse agrees. That’s why we’ve just put to press two interesting papers on the whole VoLTE roaming question–especially the technical and standards shifts and agreements that have made its adoption not just unstoppable now, but actually very desirable.