Verizon Preparing to Launch Voice Over LTE Network in September

[famoussasjohn]

Why does that matter? I don't have an Android phone.

Why does the phone you have matter? It's about the VoLTE service being enabled for everyone with a VoLTE enabled device (which will be coming) to benefit from, not just you and FaceTime..which was stated that it was going to be an open platform when it was originally announced. What happened to that?

 

[kdarling]

Just confirmed! One last catch relates to Verizon's video calling: All calls will be billed as both minutes and data. (snip)

Confirmed by whom? Engadget seems to be the only one saying that there'll be both voice and data charges for video calling.

It might even be true, but I'd rather hear it from a better source, somebody much closer to the original.

 

[Medic311]

Verizon's LTE network is already extremely congested as is...if people start making voice calls i expect huge network problems.

anyone with Verizon LTE in the Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs will know where i am coming from

 

[Drewski]

Actually, a "manicure" refers to a cosmetic treatment of the hands or the nails, not the beard.

Yes, I was born a smartass. It's genetic.

But understanding English... it's not genetic. That takes learning.

While I wouldn't have chosen "well-manicured" to describe a beard, the "dictionary" (a handy reference source that has definitions of words) allows it thusly,

Man´i`cure
v. t. & i. 1. To care for (the hands and nails); to care for the hands and nails of; to do manicure work.
[imp. & p. p. Manicured ; p. pr. & vb. n. Manicuring .]
2. to trim carefully and meticulously;as, to manicure a lawn.

So, yes, well-manicured can refer to a beard. Keep practicing though! 🙂

 

[SpyderBite]

Verizon's LTE network is already extremely congested as is...if people start making voice calls i expect huge network problems.

anyone with Verizon LTE in the Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs will know where i am coming from

Must just be Philly. Haven't had any problems in NYC, CT, Boston or Phoenix.

 

[Armen]

lol just watch how you'll receive a message saying you got 30mb data remaining....

Data consumption for Voice over LTE? Yeah, I doubt Verizon is going to invest millions of dollars only for consumers to opt out of it because they dont want to pay for data.

 

[chrisbru]

Why does that matter? I don't have an Android phone.

Because you presumably call people that may have an android phone?

 

[wxman2003]

Verizon's LTE network is already extremely congested as is...if people start making voice calls i expect huge network problems.

anyone with Verizon LTE in the Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs will know where i am coming from

Just wait until they switch completely over to LTE. Then we will discover just how poor their coverage really is. There will be a lot of unhappy customers when they can't make phone calls. I live in a city of 180,000. At my house I usually am on 3G and not LTE. So unless they plan to add a lot more towers, I will be unable to make phone calls or send texts from home unless they allow for access via wifi.

 

[milan03]

Underlying tech

If anyone cares to learn more about the benefits of VoLTE, feel free to check this thread: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1843281-Benefits-of-VoLTE

 

[Tech198]

HD audio...... prepare for increased prices.

I'm happy with 3G, with 4G on iPhone 5s, in "patchy" areas,, even in the same bedroom...

So we move on.

 

[theheadguy]

I think what they mean is that if you use Verizon's feature, you are getting dinged for data AND minutes at the same time. If you use Facetime video, you don't get charged separately for audio -- it's just data.

I'm not sure how this was all concluded though...

I must be missing something. Where does it say you get dinged at the same time??

These new HD VoLTE calls will be considered voice calls and will count against a customer's available minutes. Video calls will be counted as data and will subtract from the customer's data allotment. There will be no extra charges for using this service, and it will be optional for customers.

Where does it say it uses minutes and data at the same time? It seems to me to be either-or.

 

[Derek87]

VoLTE signal presentation into buildings?

so, one thing i've noticed anecdotally is that Verizon's current signal penetrates many buildings much better than AT&T's 4G based voice signal.

does anyone have a speculation on how this shift to VoLTE will affect the signal in building for Verizon customers?

(i'm on AT&T by the way. the prospect of dual voice/data on V is a lure, but i also don't want to see their strength (cell reception in our building a work) go away in this transition)

 

[mikeash]

Finally, can't wait! Ive had all 4 major carriers and in this area of southern California, Verizon is without question the best. Fastest LTE speeds and best signal strength with less dead zones than the other carriers. Not to mention their XLTE is about ready and it will really bury the other carriers speeds

 

[shenan1982]

GPRS did not exist in 1992.

There was a little bit of hyperbole in my statement's intent.

----------

AT&T/T-Mobile users since 1992 "Let me call you back I'm getting in the elevator" 🙄

I can make phone calls on Verizon from the 3rd level of our underground parking structure and in ALL elevators.

Hmm, not sure I've had that issue. Since ATT and T-Mo were digital only while under those brands, not sure how you can really compare. Just because Verizon can tout "we used to be amazing when you could use your phone ANYWHERE because we had analog and others didn't" doesn't make them better.

If history was a benchmark of quality, Blackberry is the best product on the market today. They were the first to offer email to go, and instant messaging on a device. Man my Blackberry was amazing. Forget being able to FaceTime video chat, Blackberry is the best because 15 years ago I could send an emoticon to my friends.

ROLLS EYES right back at ya!

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AT&T/T-Mobile users since 1992 "Let me call you back I'm getting in the elevator" 🙄

I can make phone calls on Verizon from the 3rd level of our underground parking structure and in ALL elevators.

Not sure where you live, especially since Los Angeles isn't known for having poor coverage on AT&T or T-Mobile... I lived in San Diego, Los Angeles (not the valley like I'm guessing you live), and San Francisco, and I can't remember losing a call in an elevator since back in 2001 when I had SprintPCS.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

The 5 and 5s can do VoLTE

I hope they include the 5! Really tired of dropping to 1X for calls. At least it appears that way when I end a call and I wait for LTE to come back on.

I couldn't care less about talk & surf. I can do that with wifi if I really want to, and I usually turn off wifi when I'm in a call anyway so I don't get bugged with iMessages. Tried it with AT&T for a bit in 2010 and dropped calls too much.

I'm also confused by this talk of Verizon going VoLTE only and getting rid of the old CDMA network. Sure, it might get people on dumb phones and 3G smartphones to upgrade, but it would kill their rural network and ruin their image of having the best converage. Yes, they still have areas of 3G and 1X. Trust me, I drive through Iowa.

 

[JoshGlzBrk]

Must just be Philly. Haven't had any problems in NYC, CT, Boston or Phoenix.

Just wait until they switch completely over to LTE. Then we will discover just how poor their coverage really is. There will be a lot of unhappy customers when they can't make phone calls. I live in a city of 180,000. At my house I usually am on 3G and not LTE. So unless they plan to add a lot more towers, I will be unable to make phone calls or send texts from home unless they allow for access via wifi.

Oh it's all over the place. Verizon's 700mhz LTE network, which launched in 2011 struggles to provide 1Mb/s in Seattle during peak periods and struggles all over the country. To help with this Verizon is deploying a second layer of LTE which they are calling "XLTE" which is just their AWS spectrum being deployed. They have 20mhz+20mhz of AWS spectrum in most large cities and 15+15 or 10+10 in all other areas. Just for reference, their 700mhz network is 10+10 in almost all areas.

This will help if you're close enough to a cell site and have a phone that supports it, but this will not help Verizon's underlying problem. They are facing a problem kind of like AT&T was facing back in 2008/2009. AT&T has gone and deployed tens of thousands of small cells on top of light poles, buildings, etc which has helped push their limited amount of spectrum as far as it can possible go. So instead of one large tower serving 1000 customers, you now have that tower serving say 300 customers, and four or so smaller cell sites serving 175 each. This increases the amount of bandwidth available to each device as there are fewer devices per cell site using the spectrum.

Verizon's macro tower network was originally spaced for their 850mhz 1x/cdma/evdo network which travels much further than their 700mhz LTE network does. They can deploy their 700mhz and AWS LTE on all existing towers and cell sites but it's never going to cover the entire 1x/CDMA footprint nor will it ever provide enough cell site density to support as many customers as they have going forward. What Verizon is going to need to do and has said they plan to do is exactly what AT&T has done. They are going to need to deploy thousands of smaller cells in heavily populated areas to lower the amount of devices per cell site and tower. That way there will be plenty of bandwidth per cell sector so each device has enough to actually be usable and meet the 5-12Mb/s promise of LTE service.

 

[saberahul]

So can I finally use my GPS and be on the phone at the same time?

 

[osofast240sx]

I hope they include the 5! Really tired of dropping to 1X for calls. At least it appears that way when I end a call and I wait for LTE to come back on.

I couldn't care less about talk & surf. I can do that with wifi if I really want to, and I usually turn off wifi when I'm in a call anyway so I don't get bugged with iMessages. Tried it with AT&T for a bit in 2010 and dropped calls too much.

I'm also confused by this talk of Verizon going VoLTE only and getting rid of the old CDMA network. Sure, it might get people on dumb phones and 3G smartphones to upgrade, but it would kill their rural network and ruin their image of having the best converage. Yes, they still have areas of 3G and 1X. Trust me, I drive through Iowa.

2G and 3G will be a thing of the past and they will ultimately be replaced by LTE. LTE networks are cheaper and easier to maintain by far.

 

[mdlooker]

AT&T's "near future" means IP6S if they rush or most likely IP7

 

[skratch77]

Simultaneous voice and data.

Verizon in 2014 where AT&T\T-Mobile were in 1992. LOL

Don't know what you mean about this as my gs3,gs4 and now gs5 on Verizon all supported voice and data at the same time and from memory the only reason the iPhone didn't support it was because lack of hardware support in the CDMA iPhone that apple made and nothing to do with Verizon's network.

PS I'm talking to a friend now on speaker phone and posting this at the same time on Verizon LTE with my gs5

In Boston my gs5 also connects to Verizon's A-lte spectrum network and I hit about 70mb download speeds too

 

[bushman4]

We've all been waiting long enough. Bring it on!

 

[MacSince1990]

I feel like the makers of this screenshot missed an opportunity to show the human nuances that can be conveyed via video chat… such as eye contact:

Image

Yeah I found this pretty weird too.

Also, I've never really had an issue with call quality for the most part on 3G/LTE on the 5?

 

[ke-iron]

VoLTE vs FaceTime.

Ok I think everyone here seem to miss the big picture and crucial difference between VoLTE and FaceTime. VoLTe uses minutes for audio calls and data for video calls, both FaceTime audio and video uses data only over LTE or wifi but... VoLTE calls are not encrypted where as FaceTime audio and video calls are encrypted, like the iMessage system.

 

[LostMyiPhone]

I must be missing something. Where does it say you get dinged at the same time??



Where does it say it uses minutes and data at the same time? It seems to me to be either-or.

I also said "I don't know where this is coming from" -- I'm just explaining someone else's assumptions.

Quite honestly, IDGAF lol

 

[inplainview]

Awwwwwwwww.... Voice over LTE.... To bad this has been avail from the start... So sad...