Apple Job Postings Point Towards Continued Work on Voice Over LTE

[theanimala]

I hope we don't have to wait until VoLTE to get simultaneous voice and data on Verizon. It is stupid, plain STUPID, that Apple did not include the necessary antenna to do what every other 4G phone manufacturer has been doing for years...

 

[Padmini]

First, they're going to need to put in a hell of a lot more LTE towers. I usually turn off LTE support on my iPhone 5 because coverage is so unreliable that 4G is faster.

Won't this also require many more LTE towers than 2G towers to cover the same area? I'm pretty sure the LTE towers need to be packed more densely to sustain the data rates.

All of this means that the older radios aren't going to go away-- there has to be a fall back for voice. People are willing to accept intermittent data, but they expect voice to work always and everywhere. 911 is probably a whole other layer of requirements on this.

While I agree with your vision, the carriers are very reluctant to admit they're nothing but a PHY. They think they offer services and other features that make their bandwidth more valuable. I'm not convinced they're going to suddenly wake up and say, "really we're just a radio modem."

Of course they are going to. Do you have any idea how expensive it is for them to maintain the huge antiquated 2G infrastructure?

All they care about are the dollars. In this instance, the dollars are in their favor to build out LTE faster and eventually ween off and end 2G support. How long will that take? 5 years is my way of saying "a while, no one really knows"

 

[octothorpe8]

FaceTime Audio sounds so much better that I don't even make regular phone calls anymore.

Same here with people I call who are on iPhones (or Macs) that are set up for it. As excellent as the sound is with a decent signal, though, FaceTime Audio degrades quite poorly when connectivity gets choppy.

For one thing, calls drop sometimes and they do so totally silently, so you'll find yourself talking like an idiot for a while before you realize you're on dead air. There's also occasionally weird crap like double-speed audio when it's "catching up" to the present after a lull.

Even so, I find it worthwhile to endure the glitches because it's still miles ahead of even the best cell call connection in terms of quality.

 

[lte]

All 4G phones on Verizon & Sprint

All phones that are not made from fruit already support Simultaneous voice/data on 4G/LTE
At least get your facts straight....

http://www.droid-life.com/2012/09/13/iphone-5-on-verizon-cant-do-simultaneous-voice-and-data/

BTW, for those on AT&T
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4347283?start=15&tstart=0
Your data gets slow when you do voice & data at the same time...
Thats with all phones on that carrier

I'm not bashing iPhone, just saying get it right!

 

[BeanieMan]

With that, the plans you subscribe to will be simpler...

Not if the carriers can help it. By making the plans more complicated, it makes the value comparison more difficult between carriers, forcing people to rely more on their vague impressions, i.e., advertising and psychology. Or maybe that's too cynical...