Verizon is rolling out HD voice calls via VoLTE later this year
There’s no question Verizon Wireless is one of the more expensive options when it comes to choosing wireless services. But ask any happy customer and they’ll tell you that, in most cases, you get what you pay for. Yesterday we told you guys about Verizon’s plans to double up their 4G bandwidth by rolling out XLTE across their network. Today, Verizon is back for round 2 announcing their plans to bring voice-over-LTE to their customers as early as this year.
Rolling out over the next few months, VoLTE will operate on the AMR-wideband standard (adaptive multi-rate wideband) to deliver an HD voice experience to Verizon subscribers (and on par with HD voice services from Sprint and T-Mobile who also use the same codec). Of course as we saw with XLTE, you’ll need a compatible VoLTE device — making and receiving the call — to take advantage of crystal clear voice calling. Verizon says they’ll have a “robust” lineup of VoLTE devices when the service goes live, with many other existing devices receiving a simple software update to enable VoLTE.
But it’s not just for voice calls. Verizon is saying that customers will have the ability to switch from VoLTE calls to video calls on the fly, leaving us to wonder if they wont have a separate VoLTE dialer app or something along those lines. VoLTE is just the first step of Rich Communication Services Verizon has planned for their customers. Expect large file transfers, “robust” group messaging, and enhanced location sharing in the future.