WNA

T-Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer, Neville Ray, shared in a blog post today that T-Mobile has begun rolling out a LTE Advanced version of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) in the Seattle area for LG G Flex and Samsung Galaxy Light and Note 3 customers, with plans to roll it out to more T-Mobile customers throughout the coming year.

VoLTE calls will be carried over IP on T-Mobile’s LTE network instead of a circuit-switched path.

Ray says Enhanced Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (eSRVCC), a new LTE Advanced function, helps ensure that your capable phone won’t drop a call if you leave an LTE area and it switches to 4G HSPA+ or 2G coverage. T-Mobile says it’s the first to deploy it in the U.S.

Other carriers are also planning Voice over LTE rollouts:

• AT&T Mobility plans to launch HD Voice services using Voice over LTE technology in select markets starting May 23. The company said the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini will be the first phone that can make use of the service, and that it will expand the service to additional devices in the future. AT&T said its VoLTE-powered HD Voice service will launch in select areas in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and it will expand to additional markets later.
  
• Verizon Wireless said it plans to launch VoLTE sometime this year, and said that when it launches the service the carrier will offer a “robust line” of VoLTE-capable smartphones and video calling services. AT&T Mobility’s VoLTE launch, scheduled for Friday in a handful of markets on one phone.
  
• Sprint will rely on its CDMA network and HD Voice technology for voice calling services for the foreseeable future, reports Fierce Wireless. Sprint is investing in Voice over LTE technology, but doesn’t have a timeline for deploying the service. Sprint is working with network vendor BroadSoft to enable next-generation IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) technology as well as Voice over LTE