Voice and communications service trends and outlook
VoLTE subscriptions to reach 6.3 billion at the end of 2024
Key findings
High-quality 4G and 5G voice and other communication services are continuing a growth trajectory.
VoLTE subscriptions are expected to reach 6.3 billion at the end of 2024.
The number of subscriptions with 4G and 5G voice services using IMS is projected to reach 7.8 billion by the end of 2029.
Service providers use IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) to enable mobile voice services on smartphones and other 4G and 5G voice-capable devices. 5G voice is the regular mobile phone call service that service providers offer on 5G smartphones through Voice over New Radio (VoNR) and Video over NR (ViNR) technology. Now, VoNR – the voice service for 5G standalone (SA) networks – and 5G ViNR are being launched in some markets.
The number of subscriptions with voice services based on IMS is expected to reach around 90 percent of all combined 4G and 5G subscriptions at that time.
First commercial 5G voice (VoNR) services launched
IMS is the only standardized voice solution for 5G SA networks. 5G voice services can be deployed using several options in 5G networks: LTE – New Radio (NR) dual connectivity, Evolved Packet System (EPS) fallback and VoNR. These are used in different phases of the 5G coverage build-out. Once nationwide 5G SA is in place, VoNR is the only solution that will be used. VoNR service references are now live in North America, Asia, Europe and India. The first ViNR-enabled networks, including service provider interconnect, have been launched in commercial services.
Device availability
All major chipset and device vendors support VoNR in smartphones. Other devices include indoor and outdoor customer premises equipment with Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) capabilities. ViNR is supported by most device vendors.
Use case uptake
New voice use cases include multi-device network capabilities, which tie several devices – such as phones and smartwatches – to the same phone number. Smartwatches with multi-device voice calling have become mainstream. Other current and future services include spam call protection (recent statistics reveal that in many countries, 10 to 30 percent of all calls are spam or fraud), IoT voice, interactive calling use cases such as language translation, visual call prompting, and visual position or commercials on the screen while waiting in a queue.
The trend in enterprise communication services is a shift toward mobile-integrated, unified communications services with added value compared to basic over-the-top offerings for business subscribers. This includes quality of service for mobile voice calls while being able to simultaneously share content, start a video call or conference call with common document handling, and use enterprise features such as presence status, name presentation, and hunt groups.[1] Standardization discussions are ongoing to use IMS for future services such as holographic calling.
