VoLTE Reliability: Calls Over 4G Drop 4-5 Times More Than On 3G And 2G

Calls made using 4G connections are four to five times as likely to drop than on 2G or 3G, according to research from Amdocs.

The telecoms customer care solutions provider analysed 25 million voice and data connections from 80 mobile operators around the world for its annual ‘State of RAN’ report.

Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology is seen by operators as a way to compete with over the top (OTT) voice services like Skype and WhatsApp by improving the quality and reliability of voice calls on a mobile network.

Unless VoLTE is deployed, 4G networks only handle data, so users revert to 2G or 3G when making a call, interrupting the flow of data. A separate report from Juniper claims there will be one billion VoLTE connections by 2018, but Cisco believes Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi) will be more popular.

VoLTE reliability

“This study suggests that the quality of experience VoLTE provides initially, post-deployment, can be less stable than the traditional voice service it replaces, requiring aggressive tuning by the operator,” said the report, which aims to help operators optimise their network.

Amdocs claims data traffic is growing 60 percent year-on-year but just 15 percent can be accurately described as being offloaded onto Wi-Fi – a percentage the company says operators need to increase to cope with this trend.

The report also says 75 percent of mobile traffic in cities comes is indoor, while 70 percent of spectators at sporting events and concerts will send at least one text message, highlighting the importance of network density in urban areas and special events.

Another key finding was that roamers are given a worse network experience despite the fact they are a greater revenue opportunity for operators.

Cisco’s annual networking report, published earlier this week, suggested mobile data traffic will rise to 366.8 exabytes per year by 2020.