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In recent years, mobile operators have been increasingly promoting VoLTE technology. The goal of these efforts is to transfer all voice traffic from previous generation networks (GSM/2G and UMTS/3G) to LTE networks. Cellular companies need this in order to reduce GSM and 3G networks (and eventually dismantle them completely), and reuse the released radio frequencies for LTE (this process is called refarming). But the developer of the LTE standard, the croatia whatsapp number database global partnership 3GPP, did not include voice communication in its specification, and operators are forced to resort to tricks to pass not only data but also voice through the LTE infrastructure. They are forced to implement a platform for transmitting multimedia content based on the IP protocol (IP Multimedia Subsystem, IMS), and on top of it - the technology for transmitting voice over the IP network Voice over LTE (VoLTE).
But this measure is also finite. The technical director of one of the Russian mobile operators told ComNews: "The volume of traffic in LTE networks is growing by about 30% per year. And even if we "refarm" all frequencies from GSM and 3G to LTE, this resource will last us two to three years. The industry needs to allocate new sections of the radio frequency spectrum for the development of LTE networks."
VoLTE technology (voice transmission over 4G) is becoming increasingly popular among telecom operators. They note higher quality of voice transmission compared to 2G and 3G networks, high connection speed, stable operation, instant dialing and clear sound. At the same time, you can continue to use the Internet during the call: download files or communicate in messengers.
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The duration of MTS subscribers' calls in the LTE network in January-September 2023 increased by 43% compared to the same period in 2022. The share of Internet calls was 34% compared to 21% in the previous period. MegaFon's total traffic using VoLTE exceeds 60%.
For example, PJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) stated that the share of voice traffic using this technology increased to 38.4% by the end of 2023, compared to 29.2% at the end of 2022. The total duration of calls on the LTE network increased by 43.8%.
In the MTS network, Moscow was the leader in the share of voice traffic in LTE networks in December 2023 (50.7% of the total voice volume). In St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, this figure was 43.1%. In total, the share of VoLTE traffic in the MTS network exceeded 40% in 20 regions of the country. In addition to Moscow, the leaders in this parameter were Novosibirsk Region (47.5%), Omsk Region (46%), Khabarovsk Region (44.3%), Tyumen Region (43.7%) and Krasnoyarsk Region (43.5%).
"The introduction of VoLTE will eventually free 3G networks from voice traffic and transfer them to LTE. MTS has deployed LTE 2100 networks in 49 regions of Russia, and in 2024 plans to begin refarming UMTS 2100 in at least 11 more regions. At the end of 2023, the company completed refarming all UMTS 2100 base stations within the Central Ring Road (CRR) in the Moscow region. At the same time, the transition to VoLTE depends not only on the operators themselves, but also on the distribution of modern LTE smartphones and users' refusal to use outdated phones. If we take the most advanced region of the Russian Federation in this regard, the penetration of 4G devices in Moscow and the region among MTS subscribers at the end of 2023 was 76%, and the share of 3G devices without LTE support was less than 2%," a representative of the MTS press service told a ComNews correspondent.
The share of VoLTE in the structure of all voice traffic of the PJSC VimpelCom network (Beeline brand) in November 2023 was 35%. More than 81% of 4G devices support VoLTE. Almost 77% of subscribers who have access to this function use VoLTE.