'VoIP over 4G' bider sig fast

Interessen for 'VoIP over 4G' (Vo4G) er kraftigt stigende, men der venter stadig store udfordringer, vurderer analysefirmaet Maravedis (in english).

- In the mainstream cellular industry, VoIP has yet to make any real inroads, due to the walled-garden approach of cellular carriers and technical considerations of today’s 3G networks. LTE, much like WiMAX, is being optimized for VoIP performance. When LTE networks are deployed, the bulk of revenue will still be voice revenue, making it paramount that the customer experience on a VoIP 4G network will be equivalent to their 3G experience. A shift from dual-mode networks with 3G voice and 4G data will occur over time to capitalize on the added efficiency of fully-packetized networks, says Adlane Fellah, CEO of Maravedis.

- The VoIP vendor community sees a great opportunity in Vo4G. However, vendor selection is key, says Basharat Ashai, co-author of the report.
- Since WiMAX does not today specifically address how Quality of Service (QoS) is applied for voice traffic, equipment vendors decide how to classify packets as VoIP and how to apply QoS to those packets,” he added. “Best practices” for network architecture and provisioning are lacking. Vendors need to focus on developing vertical applications and OSS/BSS capabilities targeted towards the WiMAX market.

- WiMAX and LTE promise to be the first wireless access standards fully capable of supporting VoIP, by incorporating low delay along with sufficient QoS capabilities and bandwidth, adds Mr. Fellah. The key parameters are available in these new technologies; however delivering a voice access system on an end-to-end basis remains a technically challenging task.

Barring a few exceptions, voice revenue does not yet make up a large component of total revenue. WiMAX will predominantly continue to be used to deliver high speed Internet for another year or two, but the successful deployment of VoWiMAX is crucial to profitability. Another driving factor will be the availability of VoIP capable multimode (WiMAX, 3G, LTE) mobile Internet devices (MIDs), which should greatly increase the consumer value proposition, and in turn drive increased subscription and average revenue per user (ARPU). Vo4G can make a dramatic impact on service providers’ top line revenues.