Global Telecom Companies Announce a Standards Based Solution for Voice and SMS Services Over LTE

Global Telecom Companies Announce a Standards Based Solution for Voice and SMS
Services Over LTE

DALLAS, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T*, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera,
Verizon, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia,
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Sony Ericsson have defined the preferred way
to ensure the smooth introduction and delivery of voice and SMS services on
Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks worldwide.

The above telecommunications industry leaders have jointly developed a
technical profile for LTE voice and SMS services, also known as the One Voice
initiative. The profile defines an optimal set of existing 3GPP-specified
functionalities that all industry stakeholders, including network vendors,
service providers and handset manufacturers, can use to offer compatible LTE
voice solutions.

Open collaborative discussions have concluded that the IP Multimedia Subsystem
(IMS) based solution, as defined by 3GPP, is the most applicable approach to
meeting the consumers' expectations for service quality, reliability and
availability when moving from existing circuit switched telephony services to
IP-based LTE services. This approach will also open the path to service
convergence, as IMS is able to simultaneously serve broadband wireline and LTE
wireless networks.

By following the jointly defined technical profile, the industry can help
guarantee international roaming and interoperability for LTE voice and SMS
services, ensuring subscribers continuity of these vital services - all while
offering service providers a smooth and well-defined path to LTE.

The objective of the initiative is to ensure the widest possible ecosystem for
LTE and to avoid fragmentation of technical solutions. LTE will, with this
initiative, not only serve as a broadband access for increasing data traffic,
but also for continuing voice and SMS services. Network operators will be able
to more quickly develop their customized LTE ecosystem in collaboration with
both network equipment vendors and device manufacturers. In addition, the
reassurance of global interoperability in an LTE voice landscape and the
ability to offer both broadband access and telephony services over LTE will
create strong foundations for future business.

The profile for the initial solution has been finalized and is available
through the companies associated with this press release. The objective is to
hand over the profile and continuing work to existing industry forums.

To view the technical profile, please visit
http://news.vzw.com/OneVoiceProfile.pdf.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and
affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

SOURCE Verizon Wireless

AT&T, Jenny Bridges, +1-214-665-1317, jbridges@attnews.us; Orange, Press
office, +33-1-44-44-93-93, service.presse@orange-ftgroup.com; Telefonica,
Press Office, +34-91-482-3800, prensa@telefonica.es; TeliaSonera, Carina
Axelsson, +46-70-676-84-84, carina.axelsson@teliasonera.com; Verizon, Jeffrey
Nelson, +1-917-968-9175, Jeffrey.Nelson@verizonwireless.com; Vodafone, Mark
Street, +44 (0)1635-664444, mark.street@vodafone.com, Alcatel-Lucent, Wim Van
Daele, +32-3-240-46-01, wim.van_daele@alcatel-lucent.com; Ericsson, Minako
Nakatsuma Olofzon, +46-10-714-3864, press.relations@ericsson.com; Nokia
Siemens Networks, Kent Tankersley, +358-40-5483763, kent.tankersley@nsn.com;
Nokia, Nokia Press Services, +358-7180-34900, press.services@nokia.com;
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Yeonhee Park, +82-31-277-1099,
yeony.park@samsung.com; Sony Ericsson, Mattias Holm, +44-796-1974-048,
mattias.holm@sonyericsson.com