Ericsson on Thursday announced making the first voice call from LTE mobile technology to WCDMA on a network.
Achieved on Dec. 23, 2011, in cooperation with Qualcomm, the handover is significant because it shows "users will experience seamless voice services when they move out of LTE coverage, since the call will automatically be handed over to WCDMA or GSM access during the call," Ericsson said.
Sweden-based Ericsson, the global telecom equipment and services provider, said it performed the handover based on the 3GPP-standaridized functionality Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC). Operators are expected to begin deploying SRVCC this year with more global commercial launches to follow in 2013, according to Ericsson.
LTE – the 4G high-speed wireless technology – has mostly been used for mobile data traffic to date, although operators are beginning to evolve their networks to support voice and SMS over LTE and prepare to introduce globally interoperable multimedia services on LTE smartphones, Ericsson said.
“By accomplishing this advanced LTE handover technology together with Qualcomm, we now ensure that operators can meet consumers’ expectations on a high-quality voice over LTE service," said Johan Wibergh, Ericsson's Head of Business Unit Networks, in a statement. "Operators will be able to maintain their quality brand for their voice business when they launch voice over LTE."
Ericsson established the handover using its end-to-end network infrastructure and a Qualcomm LTE/3G multimode smartphone chipset.
