Vodacom is launching South Africa’s first commercially available VoLTE network.
Currently compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, the service operates over Vodacom’s 4G/LTE network and offers faster call set up times (the amount of time it takes between dialling a number and the phone ringing at the recipient’s end), better voice quality, and additional capabilities such as being able to continue browsing the web or using apps while simultaneously making a call.
VoLTE technology, which enables mobile voice traffic to be carried natively over a data network, was originally demonstrated by Vodacom in September last year. However, up until today the service has been limited by a lack of compatible devices.
Andries Delport, Vodacom’s Chief Technology Officer said: “VoLTE is now officially up and running in SA thanks to these new handsets. Within the next month VoLTE functionality will be added to additional devices, and we expect usage will grow rapidly as more and more handset manufacturers include the functionality."
At present the VoLTE service is available to contract customers who have compatible handsets. There is no additional charge to use this service. Customers with compatible handsets will need to run a free software update to enable the service.
