Telefónica Germany has readied its network for VoLTE, becoming one of the first operators to offer converged wireless and wireline services on a common IMS core network.
As announced yesterday, Ericsson is the main supplier and has deployed a range of products from its IMS portfolio, such as call session control function, multimedia telephony application server, media resource system and system integration services products for the operator’s multivendor network.
The contract includes handling deployment, end-to-end design and verification of the VoLTE network, as well as running fault analysis.
The vendor has also deployed its single radio voice call continuity functionality, which hands over voice calls from LTE networks onto 3G or 2G.
Telefónica Germany is planning to use the upgraded network to offer video calling, conferencing and collaboration services across fixed and mobile networks.
However, the operator said it is waiting for a full ecosystem of VoLTE compatible devices before it launches the service to the mass market.
Karsten Schröder, Head of Converged Solutions, Telefónica Germany: “When we started six years ago with the investment into IMS to deliver DSL voice services, we laid the seed for a strategic modernisation of our core service architecture.
“With the advent of VoLTE, we were able to harvest the fruits by re-using the very same IMS core for our mobile customers, being the first operator proving that VoLTE is not just a standard, but can be used in a real-life multi-vendor environment.
“As a result, the convergent architecture allows us today to deliver seamless services agnostic to the physical access by which the customer is connected to our network.”
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