T-Mobile launches Voice over LTE (VoLTE) in Seattle ahead of iOS 8 support

T-Mobile has just announced the rollout of Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) in Seattle.

The timing of this announcement is quite significant as iOS 8 slated to be released later this fall is likely to add support for VoLTE.
T-Mobile’s CTO Neville Ray announced the launch of VoLTE on the company’s website:

So I’m thrilled to congratulate my team on the launch of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) in the Seattle area for our existing LG G Flex and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Light customers. Our friends at MetroPCS were the first to launch VoLTE in the U.S. back in 2012, and we’ve been working hard on a LTE Advanced version of VoLTE, which we plan to roll out to more T-Mobile customers throughout the coming year.

VoLTE brings faster call setup times (almost twice as fast as a non-VoLTE call setup), and the ability to surf the web on LTE while on the call. Currently, calls are carried over the same network as 3G data, so you can surf the web only on 3G while on a call.
The feature is being rolled out only for some Android devices currently. iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c chipset support VoLTE, however Apple needs to add support for it in iOS. Apple is widely expected to add support for VoLTE in iOS 8.
Verizon and AT&T have also plans to add VoLTE support. Earlier reports stated that iOS 8 support for VoLTE could be pushed back if there weren’t enough VoLTE-enabled carriers, but it looks like this won’t be a problem anymore.
[via T-Mobile]

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