The next generation voice technology has been the subject of much debate. Major U.S. carriers Verizon and AT&T are leading the charge and so far only one of them has been able to roll it out. Both have been working for the past couple of years to get the infrastructure for this technology in place. AT&T beat Verizon to the market by launching VoLTE earlier this week and even though Big Red is yet to roll it out, it assures that VoLTE will be rolled out to its customers within the year.
Verizon executives made something clear to Engadget today that will give it a leg up on AT&T when its VoLTE service launches. AT&T has only rolled out the next generation voice technology in limited markets whereas Verizon says it will launch the service nationwide from the get go. That would certainly explain the delay. AT&T may have beaten it to the market but it will need time to catch up to Verizon in markets where the service isn’t available right now.
Despite saying that the launch will take place later this year Verizon executives don’t offer an exact time frame, so its unclear exactly when the carrier’s VoLTE service will go live. However they did confirm that the network will be interoperable with any of its VoLTE enabled rivals, thus ensuring that the caller and listener both experience rich high quality audio.