For AT&T customers who live in areas with slow cellular networks such as by the ocean in Northern California, AT&T will soon have a service available that should alleviate their pain. It is called HD Voice and it runs on AT&T's LTE network. However, it will be a limited rollout.
The calls that traditionally run on 2G/3G connections through cellular networks will be moved to data networks. This means Internet speed and bandwidth will matter more than to a satellite hovering above users.
The early rollout will be tied to a specific phone, called the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, and will only be available in certain areas of the U.S. It is being marketed for select mid-western states that include Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin with other areas later getting support as well.
The voice quality is said to be very crisp and crystal clear. However, the technology will also allow for other advancements, such as video chat, multimedia-SMS chat and services that can benefit from broadband access.
Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is a relatively new telecommunications standard that is sometimes marketed as a 4G wireless communications service. It is a similar idea to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), meaning that Internet voice-based communication can be made as calls over a broadband connection.
In a 4G connection using VoLTE, a voice becomes another app on a data network and the protocol can make faster, better and higher quality voice communication possible. Even video chat can be possible that is tied to the cell phone service and number, while voice-minute-based billing is no longer an issue that is common on 2G/3G networks.
LTE is a data-only network tech, so it uses Internet Protocol packets for all communications and doesn't support traditional voice-call tech. A new protocol and applications for VoLTE are needed to carry the voice calls. All 4G phones on the market also contain older circuitry that supports 3G or older cellular networks for this task.
By most accounts, mobile operators will not rollout most VoLTE services for voice until at least 2015 (despite this effort by AT&T proving otherwise to a certain extent). However, apps like Skype can be used as VoIP over 4G networks while customers wait. VoLTE has been remarkably successful in South Korea, which is a very Internet-connected country with a lot faster bandwidth access for many citizens.
AT&T will start to roll out the service on May 23.
