Telecoms Agree on LTE SMS and Voice

Mobile phones with support for IP-based Long Term Evolution (LTE) will not be on the scene until 2011, and LTE networks wont reach significant market penetration until 2012 or 2013. But a group of mobile telecom operators and vendors have already hammered out an agreement on how to offer voice and SMS services on the 4th generation of wireless networks.

The agreement, called the One Voice initiative, includes AT&T, Orange, Telefnica, TeliaSonera, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson. Missing in action are T-Mobile, Sprint and Chinese players. The standard is aimed at helping to ensure international interoperability for LTE voice and SMS services for consumers and to smooth the way to service convergence.

"Open collaborative discussions," One Voice representatives say, "have concluded that the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based solution as defined by 3GPP, is the most applicable approach to meeting the consumers' expectations."

LTE will initially be used for wireless data services, with existing circuit-switched networks carrying voice and SMS. Eventual migration of voice and SMS to packet-based 4G LTE is what the One Voice initiative addresses with the new technical standard. Verizon Wireless and Vodafone partner, plan on introducing LTE service in the U.S sometime next year.