Difference Between LTE and VOLTE

There has been tremendous growth in the last decades, both in mobile networks and internet usage. People all over the world now switched to androids or Ios and experiencing a new era of mobile internet with the jump of 3G network settings to the 4G networks for mobiles. With this, there also has been a lot of hype regarding free voice calling as well as Gio offering unlimited 4G internet access plans. Let us take a look at what is the difference between LTE and voLTE?

Back in the year 2012, Airtel first came up with the concept of LTE establishing in India, which is also commonly known as 4G. It raised the level of the internet and the network services of smartphones. Since 2012, many people in India have anticipated LTE as the biggest breakthrough in mobile internet networks until Reliance came up with a whole new concept of voLTE. With the launch of voLTE, Reliance took over the market instantly. But there are only a few tech enthusiasts who actually have a clear idea of the working of the 4G voLTE, but there are many users across the world who are not clear about LTE and voLTE. Thus this article deals with the topic “what is the difference between LET and voLTE?”

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What Is LTE?

LTE is elaborated as Long term Evolution that is considered as the technical standard for wireless broadband networks for data terminals as well as mobile networks for both GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA technologies that are incorporated in the smartphones. LTE is launched to increase the net speed of the smartphone by incorporating both the improvement of core networks with the use of various radio network interfaces. For the carriers of both the CDMA 2000 networks and GSM/UMTS networks, LTE has been an upgrade path. There are different band frequencies of LTE used in various countries that differ from one another. Thus it indicates that the mobile phones that support multi-bands are appropriate for use in all the countries as they will support all the frequencies and band range.

LTE has been precisely marked as 3.95 GB thus, it is either commonly called 4G LTE or advance 4G that means the 4th Generation. These two act as synonyms for one another. The criteria that have been set for the wireless service as it is mentioned in the 3GPP release of 8 and 9 series comprising specifications of LTE advanced, the above advanced 4G does not fit in that criteria. As per the theories mentioned for LTE, it supports a downloading speed of up to 100Mbits per second whereas the upload speed of 50Mbits per second. At the same time, the advanced LTE supports a download speed of 1GBits per second and an upload speed of MBits per second.

LTE is the 4G network with 5X internet speed, but it is just restricted to the internet protocol that is the speed can only be viable while surfing on the internet, but as soon as the person switches to SMS and phone calls, the network falls back to the 3G or 2G mode.

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The framework of LTE is illustrated by the given diagram.

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Image: Illustration of LTE network flow chart

What Is voLTE?

voLTE stands for voice over Long Term Evolution which is a developed high-speed standard for the data terminals and wireless communication both for the data terminal and for smartphones. It also supports the network of physical objects known as the Internet of Things or IoT as well as wearables. This has a data capacity and voice calling clarity of more than six times more than the 2G GSM and up to three times more than the previously launched 3G UMTS. As compared to the suboptimal VoIP/LTE, the packet headers of VoLTE are much smaller, and therefore the latter is of much lesser bandwidth than the former. Despite its high-quality calling support, the charges for both LTE and VoLTE are the same. 

To be able to fully utilise the service of VoLET, the mobile device, the framework, as well as the service provider need to support the VoLET service in the area by working together in one frame. Though it has been marketed that claims VoLTE provide the HD voice quality while calling but the standards marked for VoLTE is not the same. Along with the profiles that work specifically for media planes and control of voice services, VoLTE works in an architectural framework of the IP Multimedia System (IMS). Thus, this enables VoLTE to compute on the LTE broadband services that are defined by GSMA. Thus this development in the technology involves the control, and the data plane services are delivered as per the data flowing in the LTE data carrier. Thus it does not have any dependency or requirements for the circuit-switch of the voice network to be in the path of calling.

It has been recorded that there have been 253 operators who have invested in VoLTE in over 113 countries by February of the year 2019. This figure also includes 87 countries where as many as 183 service providers have launched HD-VoLTE commercially all over the given countries as compared to 65 countries with 137 operators before 12 months. This data has been released by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. In August 2019, another survey conducted by the same association declared that the numbers went up to 262 operators who have officially invested in HD-VoLTE services all over 91 countries.

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The framework of VoLTE is illustrated by the given diagram.

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Image: Illustration of VoLTE network flow chart

VoLTE And LTE Difference In Broader Terms

4G LTE enables the use of the internet and all other apps that require an internet connection to run, but during the voice calling and SMSing, the network drops to a 3G or 2G network. But with the VoLTE network system, all the necessary phone services like web browsing, using mobile applications on smartphones and calling as well as messaging via any messenger supported by IP network or normal SMSing from phone will be initiated through the data or the internet framework. Thus the VoLTE enabled the High Definition voice calling via the web, similar to the WhatsApp call that is initiated via IP Network. As VoLTE is the refined form of the LTE 4G thus, it can be summarised that the LTE can operate on its own and can support both the internet as well as calling and SMS services without the involvement of VoLTE, but it is not possible for VoLTE to function without the presence of LTE network as it is the upgraded version of LTE 4G.

The main disadvantage of having a VoLTE is that if someone is travelling to a remote area where there is the absence of either the service provider or the framework, the mobile set is of no use as there will not be any facility for internet surfing or running the app and it will not even support the voice calling or messaging because it is independent of the circuit -a switch that enables the voice network in case of LTE to fall back to 3G or 2G automatically in the absence of 4G network. But with more and more major and moderate service providers all over the world are commercially adopting the VoLTE services thus it has become a major necessity to upgrade the smartphones to the VoLTE frameworks. But unfortunately, the big players in this market like Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL and others are still on LTE mode while there is only Reliance that is providing VoLTE services in India.

VoLTE And LTE Difference 

 The difference between LTE and voLTE is given below: