Basking Ridge,
N.J. – Verizon Wireless moved closer to bringing voice calling to its
, having
placed live VoLTE (Voice over LTE) calls over its commercial LTE network for
the first time on Wednesday.
“This takes VoLTE
calling from a lab environment to a commercial network for the first time
anywhere on the globe,” said Verizon, which expects to offer commercial VoLTE services
in 2012. The technology promises to use spectrum more efficiently for
voice calling because conversations are transmitted as data packets, making it
unnecessary to tie up voice circuits for the entire length of conversations.
During the calls,
participants used VoLTE-equipped LG Revolution Android 2 smartphones to dial
out and receive VoLTE calls. Callers at both ends of a conversation were able
to browse the Web and use other data services while participating in an LTE
conversation, Verizon said.
The calls originated and terminated in Basking
Ridge.