MetroPCS Launches Voice Over LTE Service

MetroPCS officially launched its commercial Voice-over-LTE service. The first sale of a VoLTE-capable handset occurred at one of the company's Dallas/Fort Worth store locations.

The new VoLTE-capable LG Connect 4G Android smartphone is now on sales at select stores across the U.S.. MetroPCS said it will continue to roll out VoLTE services and phones in the coming weeks.

MetroPCS had 9.3 million overall mobile subscribers as of the end of Q2, of which over 700,000 were LTE subscriptions.

With the new VoLTE, voice calls are carried transparently over LTE regardless of the handset or network used on the other end of the call.

"The initial move to LTE and this move to VoLTE allow us to achieve significant spectral efficiencies and will increase network capacity so that we can enhance the 4G LTE experience that our customers have today at a tremendous value. VoLTE also provides a foundational capability for future Rich Communication Services (RCS), which we plan to launch later this year," stated Roger Linquist, chairman and chief executive officer of MetroPCS.

MetroPCS noted that it was the first U.S. carrier to deploy a commercial 4G LTE network in September 2010. So far, the LTE network rollout covers roughly 90 percent of its CDMA footprint. http://www.metropcs.com 07-Aug-12