Verizon Wireless Announces VoLTE with HD Voice Coming Later This Year

After AT&T announced its plans earlier this week to bring VoLTE with HD Voice to its network, Verizon has also followed suit.

In the 'coming months' Verizon will rollout Voice Over LTE which will bring crystal clear calls with less background noise. Like AT&T, it will be using the AMR-WB codec. And while Verizon does not mention this, the biggest news with the VoLTE rollout is that Verizon customers can finally use both data and voice simultaneously on iPhones.

Choosing a national rollout on the nation’s largest 4G LTE network, Verizon can deliver a seamless customer experience for high-quality calling and other features. From the beginning, Verizon’s VoLTE service will offer an HD Voice experience, using the AMR-wideband standard, the accepted industry norm for this service. This solution provides the best voice quality available now and allows for future interoperability with others using the standard.

Verizon has always been focused on a standards-based, nationwide implementation, supported by a tangible volume of handsets. The company will have a robust line-up of VoLTE-enabled smartphones available when the service launches. And, more and more customers across the country will be able to use VoLTE as select handsets will be VoLTE-enabled through a software update leading up to the roll out of the service, with new devices VoLTE-enabled at the time of purchase later this year. For a customer to make or receive a VoLTE call, both parties must have VoLTE-enabled devices and be in an area where VoLTE is available.

Verizon’s VoLTE will also offer video calling options, including making and receiving video calls directly from contact lists. As part of the VoLTE video calling experience, customers have the ability to change their calls instantly from voice-only to voice and video. The rollout also sets the stage for future enhancements through Rich Communications Services (RCS), which enable things like including large file transfer, more robust group messaging, and more location sharing.

The current iPhones do not support VoLTE, although their chipset does -- so Apple could update devices like the iPhone 5 to support Verizon's version of HD Voice and VoLTE. However, it is very likely that the next generation iPhone will come with VoLTE support out of the box, meaning customers can enjoy this new service.

Both Sprint and T-Mobile offer HD Voice currently, however they achieve this by using the AMR-WB codec on their 3G networks.


Yesterday, Verizon launched XLTE in select areas which helps double the bandwidth for devices like the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

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