voiceoverlte
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Cellular South hooks up with Samsung for LTE network, two LTE-enabled phones next year
Regional carriers -- which historically haven't had the highest-tech networks around -- have been surprisingly quick to support LTE (heck, MetroPCS remains the only US carrier with a live network), and now it's little Cellular South jumping on the bandwagon. Samsung sent out a press release a few days ago touting a new partnership to help Cellular South in its grand endeavor, supplying both infrastructure equipment and two LTE-compatible phones for a launch in 2011 with expanded availability in 2012 in the carrier's 700MHz spectrum. Interestingly, the companies have also committed to launch voice over LTE next year, meaning Cellular South will no longer need to rely on its legacy 3G network for phone calls -- that's something that Big Red won't be doing initially when its network goes live next month, though it's not clear what standard Cellular South will be using for the deployment. Follow the break for the full press release.
Latest VoLGA specs for LTE voice include HSPA option
Verizon is lining up to use IMS for its 4G voice solution, but an alternative spec coming out of the VoLGA Forum -- which counts Deutsche Telekom, HTC, Samsung, and LG among its members -- is shaping up with a revised version this week that includes some intriguing new features. Some of the line items are bare-bones basics that'll be required of any successful next-gen spec, notably the addition of SIM-less emergency calling like you can do on a GSM handset today, but what caught our eye is a mention of "the use of VoLGA over HSPA." Presumably, this means that carriers that already have 3G services widely deployed today will be able to run voice using the same protocol for both their HSPA and LTE networks, simplifying infrastructure in the long term. It's still pretty crazy to us that voice over LTE isn't a unified, cut-and-dried standard that was squared away years ago -- but if anything, it just serves as a stark reminder for how important data has become in our mobile devices. Follow the break for the press release.
