Major carriers the world over have their work cut out for them. And it seems they’re up to the task.
Spectrum repurposing is gaining momentum, says ABI in a new report indicating that the launch of Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) services by major carriers first in South Korea and soon in the United States is part of the effort to move voice calls from the circuit switched 2G and 3G networks to the packet switched LTE networks.
To achieve this, operators have built extensive LTE networks, which also serve as a marketing tool to stay in competition.
“For CDMA operators such as Verizon, aggressive LTE deployment is necessary because a VoLTE call cannot fall back to the circuit switched domain,” explains Ying Kang Tan, research associate at ABI Research.
“Even for WCDMA operators like AT&T, it makes sense to do likewise because LTE is much more spectral efficient than WCDMA,” Tan adds.
By the close of 2014, ABI Research expects more than 93% of the North American population to have access to LTE.
