Volte Final
Volte Final
Volte Final
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Contents
Executive summary..........................................................................................................................................4
In brief............................................................................................................................................................4
Market status....................................................................................................................................................4
Operators look to new services to drive mobile revenue growth.................................................................5
Market development.........................................................................................................................................5
When to VoLTE...............................................................................................................................................5
Drivers for VoLTE deployment.................................................................................................................6
VoLTE gaining traction worldwide...........................................................................................................7
Video (ViLTE) might take longer ...................................................................................................................8
VoLTE to drive RCS growth............................................................................................................................8
The VoWi-Fi factor..........................................................................................................................................8
VoLTE going into the mainstream....................................................................................................................9
Operators progressing towards full VoLTE...................................................................................................9
Commercial considerations for VoLTE implementation...............................................................................9
Operators pricing expectations.....................................................................................................................9
VoLTE across borders....................................................................................................................................10
Technical and commercial considerations..................................................................................................10
Conclusions and recommendations...............................................................................................................13
Executive summary
In brief
Operators are increasingly looking towards new services to drive mobile revenue growth. Voice will continue to
remain relevant, but voice services, evolved into a broader context to include multimedia features, are expected to
gain momentum and enable operators to compete against the growing burden of OTT voice services. We already
see Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services gaining fast traction, with a slew of operators announcing VoLTE launches
or trialing VoLTE for their domestic markets. It will be equally important for operators to expand VoLTE services
across borders, in order to extend the same good quality of experience to their travelling customers. Many
operators are likely to implement international VoLTE within next 6-12 months.
1. Operators need to develop new voice opportunities and VoLTE will be a crucial step forward, in order to offer
an improved end-user experience. VoLTE, combined with rich communications suite (RCS), has the potential to
bring new opportunities for operators and to gain innovation leadership. This will be crucial to compete with the
OTT players and other network providers. In addition, VoLTE will bring spectrum efficiencies and opex savings for
operators through network consolidation.
2. The VoLTE ecosystem is getting there, with more than 80 operators in different stages of VoLTE deployment and
many others trialing the technology worldwide. Asia Pacific is one of the leading regions for VoLTE deployment
with operators in South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong having launched commercial VoLTE services. Operators in
the US are a close second with commercial VoLTE services already deployed across many markets.
3. As operators launch VoLTE services across their domestic markets, they will soon need to start thinking about
international VoLTE interconnection and roaming for international service continuity. International VoLTE could
be a significant opportunity for operators to gain the first-mover advantage; however, there remain the inherent
challenges of interworking and interoperability. Some of the recent trials showcasing cross-border VoLTE
implementations, such as China Mobile and KPN Mobile demonstrating IMS-based VoLTE roaming supported by
iBasis IPX, pave the way for VoLTE interoperability and commercial roaming deployments.
4. For VoLTE roaming, operators will need to remain flexible between home routing and local routing solutions. Local
routing can be a powerful solution for operators to offer an improved quality of service to roaming customers by
serving them through local operators. As local routing means that the VoLTE voice and Video over LTE (ViLTE) calls
will not need to trombone back to the home network, it will offer a better quality of experience at a reduced cost.
Market status
Latin America
Africa
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
2.5
Connections (billions)
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Source: Ovum
Data
When to VoLTE
Voice
100
38
42
45
48
50
53
55
62
58
55
52
50
47
45
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
80
60
40
20
0
Source: Ovum
Figure 3: Which services are expected to drive mobile network revenue growth over
the next five years?
Top 1
Top 2
Top 3
15
21
M2M 11
20
Video (ViLTE)
10
14
15
Market development
Figure 2: Global mobile revenue, voice and data market shares, 201319
Share (%)
17
16
9
17
8
Any other 2 1 3
0
10
20
30
40
Respondents (%)
50
60
Source: Ovum
Already
deployed
In <1 year
In 1-2 years
In 3-4 years
No plans/
Not decided
VoLTE
16
32
32
10
Video (ViLTE)
10
37
13
36
RCS
Figure 4: What is your timeline for domestic launch of the following services?
15
21
46
Respondents (%)
Source: Ovum
Figure 5: What are the major drivers for you to deploy VoLTE?
1= Extremely important
5= Unimportant
45
36
30
27
22
20
20
36
30
14
16 3
13
23
38
16
22
44
40
60
Respondents (%)
17
80
13
9
5
6
9
100
Source: Ovum
driver.
Country
Operator
VoLTE Launch
LTE Launch
Americas
US
AT&T
May 2014
September 2011
US
T-Mobile USA
May 2014
March 2013
US
Verizon
September 2014
December 2010
South Korea
SK Telecom
August 2012
July 2011
South Korea
LGU+
August 2012
July 2011
South Korea
KT
October 2012
January 2012
Hong Kong
CSL
May 2014
August 2011
Hong Kong
Three
May 2014
May 2012
Japan
NTT DoCoMo
May 2014
December 2010
Singapore
SingTel
May 2014
June 2012
Singapore
StarHub
June 2014
September 2012
Japan
KDDI
December 2014
September 2012
Denmark
TDC
November 2014
October 2011
Romania
Vodafone
November 2014
November 2012
UAE
Du
August 2014
June 2012
Asia Pacific
Europe
Middle East
Source: Ovum
Figure 6: What do you think are the top two drivers for operators launching RCS?
Top 1
Top 2
11
36
20
0
0
41
20
23
3
5
10
15
20
25
Respondents (%)
30
35
40
45
Source: Ovum
Undecided
42%
Yes
44%
No
9%
Source: Ovum
Description
Pros
Cons
Simultaneous Voice
and LTE Data (SVLTE)
Potentially
negative impact on
device battery life
Circuit-Switched
Fallback (CSFB)
Maintaining call
continuity for VoLTE
and 2G/3G voice; offers
seamless handover with
single device radio for
improved battery life
over CSFB
Source: Ovum
Operators pricing
expectations
Figure 8: For VoLTE implementation, which of the following aspects is most important to you?
1= Extremely important
5= Unimportant
41
42
33
33
31
31
28
17
40
60
5
9 3
14
45
20
19
47
25
Time to market
25
27
25
Minimizing complexity
20
13
19
80
9
9
5
100
Respondents (%)
Source: Ovum
Figure 9: What is your expectation for LTE voice and video calling pricing models for
end users?
Per minute
Capacity based
56%
72%
28%
44%
Source: Ovum
10
Figure 10: How soon after you have deployed VoLTE in your domestic market will you support it for international interconnect and roaming?
VoLTE for roaming
5%
14%
Immediately
28%
Within 6 months
19%
22%
11%
6-12 months
12-24 months
14%
19%
8%
27%
19%
16%
Source: Ovum
Figure 11: What do you think are the major challenges for domestic and international VoLTE implementation?
Domestic VoLTE
International VoLTE
72
Roaming complexities
56
53
38
Reach/coverage
39
22
23
8
20
88
69
44
34
40
60
Respondents (%)
80
100
Source: Ovum
11
Figure 12: Do you plan to use a local routing (by visited network) or home routing for
VoLTE roaming?
Local routing
12%
Home routing
22%
Source: Ovum
Figure 13: From a quality standpoint, what percentage of your VoLTE roamers traffic
do you think would benefit from being locally routed?
More than 20%
14%
Less than 10%
38%
Source: Ovum
Figure 14: What do you think are the key concerns for operators under the local
routing model?
1 = Highest concern
5 = Lowest concern
45
38 5
42
Unclear wholesale
settlement between home
and visited operators
38
34
36
23
0
20
60
11
20 3
44
40
8 5
23
80
8 2
6
8 2
100
Respondents (%)
Source: Ovum
12
13
ABOUT OVUM
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ABOUT IBASIS
A wholly-owned KPN company, iBasis is a leading international voice carrier and provider of value-added services for
mobile operators. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of voice termination and data services, including
messaging, signaling and roaming, for many of the worlds largest fixed and mobile operators, as well as OTT service
providers.
iBasis International LTE Services Solution
iBasis offers mobile operators the shortest route to securing LTE revenues and achieving a global LTE footprint. The
iBasis LTE services use the iBasis multiservice IPX for guaranteed and differentiated quality for all services. A single point
of access provides operators entry to iBasis 4G (LTE) signaling network, with Diameter Routing Agents on all continents
for maximum service quality and more than 175 LTE destinations in more than 80 countries. iBasis LTE solution includes
Diameter signaling, data roaming and VoLTE interworking and roaming, combined with the InVision advanced monitoring,
troubleshooting and reporting tool. iBasis also offers a robust trial environment for testing LTE signaling and data roaming
and VoLTE scenarios.
Find out more about iBasis at www.ibasis.com