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Research and Markets: Behind the VoLTE Curtain: Analysis of Four Smartphones / VoLTE Clients Using T-Mobile's LTE network in Southern California - Apple, LG, Samsung & Sony
[January 22, 2015]

Research and Markets: Behind the VoLTE Curtain: Analysis of Four Smartphones / VoLTE Clients Using T-Mobile's LTE network in Southern California - Apple, LG, Samsung & Sony


Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/blzlc7/behind_the_volte) has announced the addition of the "Behind the VoLTE Curtain, Part 2" report to their offering.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS STUDY

This report presents the results of an analysis of four smartphones / VoLTE clients using T-Mobile's LTE (News - Alert) network in Southern California. The smartphone tested are the Apple iPhone, the LG G Flex, the Samsung Galaxy Light, and the Sony Xperia Z3.

Authors' view:

We did this study in collaboration with Spirent Communications (News - Alert), who provided us with its test equipment and engineering support to collect much of the data. In addition to gaining some insight into how VoLTE compares with HD-Voice on a 3G network and how the 23.85 kbps voice codec compares with the more widely used 12.65 kbps voice codec, we also identified the performance differnces between the four smartphones / VoLTE clients that we tested.



Although we didn't identify any meaningful differences when it came to the perceived voice quality (MOS) we did observe differences when it came to the impact on the current drain and estimated battery life. For example, only one smartphone achieved a longer battery life with VoLTE than with 3G CS voice. Two smartphones came relatively close to achieving this important threshold and one smartphone had a significant performance disadvantage with VoLTE compared with 3G CS voice.

We were only able to obtain chipset diagnostic information for two of the smartphones so we also relied on results taken last summer when we tested AT&T's (News - Alert) VoLTE implementation. In this category the two smartphones preformed largely on par with each other - not surprising given that they both use the Qualcomm (News - Alert) chipset. Both smartphones also had much better KPIs than what we observed last summer. Various factors could explain this phenomenon, but in any event the trend is positive for VoLTE.


Lastly, we included FaceTime (News - Alert) and Viber, along with Skype, to see how the OTT voice applications compared with VoLTE.

Consistent with our results from last summer, we observed that these applications can deliver a great voice call - in some cases outperforming VoLTE. However, they do quite poorly with network loading while the cost impact in terms of the shortened battery life and the higher network resource requirements cannot be ignored.

Key Topics Covered:

1.0 Executive Summary

2.0 Key Observations and Conclusions

3.0 Voice Call Quality Analysis

4.0 Network Resource Analysis

5.0 Battery Life, Current Drain and Power Consumption Analysis

6.0 Test Methodology

7.0 Final Thoughts

8.0 Appendix

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/blzlc7/behind_the_volte


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