Voice over LTE or VoLTE services will account for nearly $120 billion in annual service revenue by 2020, as mobile operators remain committed to the technology as the long term solution to secure a fully native IP based telephony experience, according to SNS Research.
The firm said that almost all VoLTE operators are committed to migrate existing mobile voice subscribers to LTE in order to re-farm their 2G and 3G spectrum. In India, Reliance Jio is aggressively banking on the VoLTE technology to offer voice service in the country. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India are also planning to launch VoLTE-based services soon in collaboration with Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia.
VoLTE capable smartphone shipments will grow at a CAGR of 33% between 2015 and 2020, eventually accounting for over 950 Million unit shipments by the end of 2020, the study said.
As part of the wider NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) initiative, many vendors are integrating their virtualized VoLTE offerings with cloud platforms, SNS Research said.
First deployed by South Korean operators in 2012, VoLTE is beginning to gain momentum globally. As of Q3 2015, more than 20 operators have commercially launched VoLTE services and several roaming and interoperability agreements are already in place.
