VoLTE smartphone demand goes up in India, courtesy free services from Reliance Jio

The launch of Reliance Jio’s 4G data and VoLTE voice services has led to a significant surge in demand for smartphones compatible with the voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) technology. Reliance Jio, which launched commercial services on September 5, is offering free voice and capped data services to its customers in the country.

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Almost seven out of every 10 smartphones shipped were LTE capable, while eight out of every 10 LTE capable smartphones were VoLTE ready, according to data shared by Counterpoint Research report.

The research agency said that over 14 million VoLTE smartphones were shipped in the July-September quarter. These 14 million VoLTE phones were 80% of all LTE-compatible smartphones shipments in the quarter, as compared with 63% in the three months through June and 30% in the first quarter.

In the April-June quarter, only 8 million VoLTE phones were shipped into the country.

VoLTE technology allows an operator to offer both voice and data without switching between bands, with voice being just another application that rides on an LTE data network. Jio is the only 100% VoLTE-enabled network in the country and runs on devices enabled with the technology

Incumbents Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and government-owned BSNL and MTNL run offer voice services on circuit switched fallback (CSFB) networks. CSFB is a technology where voice and SMS services are delivered to LTE devices through the use of GSM or another circuit-switched network.

Also read: List of Jio 4G supported VoLTE Smartphones in India