The Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank has announced that it is using the Ericsson (News - Alert) VoLTE mobile network solution to deliver advanced communication services to its customers.
“With the rapid network evolution to LTE (News - Alert), SoftBank Mobile decided to introduce VoLTE as the next generation communication technology for voice and video calling over LTE,” said Junichi Miyakawa, SoftBank’s executive vice president, director and CTO. “We hope to be able to deliver quality communication in a fast and cost-efficient manner by utilizing Ericsson's VoLTE solution."
Ericsson will upgrade SoftBank’s core network with a complete IMS core, including a Multimedia Telephony Application Server. This new infrastructure will replace SoftBank’s already existing infrastructure, which includes Ericsson Mobile Softswitch and an Evolved Packet core.
While the transition to LTE is underway, Ericsson will also handle the handover from LTE to WCDMA seamless over SoftBank’s network. LTE phones will be able to use data simultaneously while making voice and video calls.
VoLTE is a major step up from traditional mobile telephony service. It uses packet switching, the way the Internet does, instead of the traditional circuit-switching. VoLTE also delivers voice calls in much higher quality than in the past.
In addition to higher quality voice calls, SoftBank will also allow its customers to experience HD video calling as well as multimedia services. SoftBank also plans to increase the virtualization of its network and introduce Telecom Cloud.
"Ericsson's VoLTE offering provides a highly capable end-to-end solution for SoftBank Mobile,” said Jan Signell, president and representative director of Ericsson Japan and head of northeast asia region. “With this new agreement we will continue to strengthen our strategic partnership with SoftBank Mobile. By leveraging on the Ericsson installed base in the mobile core and radio network, and our ability to deliver complex Systems Integration projects, SoftBank Mobile will benefit from a fast and cost efficient new service introduction."
Edited by Alisen Downey