3UK on Tuesday stole a march on its bigger rivals by being the first operator in the country to launch voice over LTE (VoLTE).
The service, called 4G Super-Voice, is available at no extra cost.
It is underpinned by 3UK’s 800-MHz spectrum, which the company is using on its mobile network for the first time since acquiring it at 2013’s LTE auction. In addition to supporting its VoLTE service, rolling out LTE at 800 MHz will improve the performance of 3UK’s 4G network over long distances and in buildings.
3UK said 4G Super-Voice is available to 50% of the population at launch, including three quarters of London, Edinburgh, Exeter, and Birmingham. The company has also begun rolling out VoLTE in Cardiff, Manchester and Liverpool, with a view to providing 65% population coverage by the end of the year.
"By the end of the year, 1 million of our customers will have access to better indoor coverage and be able to use their phones in more places than ever before. We are proud to be the first network to roll this out across the country," said 3UK CTO Bryn Jones, in a statement.
The company predicts that as many as 5.5 million 3UK customers will be able to access its 4G Super-Voice service by 2017, subject to take-up and device compa tibility.
On that note, customers with supported handsets will receive a software update that will enable them to use VoLTE. At launch, only the Samsung Galaxy S5 will work; however, 3UK said new devices will be added – including Apple’s latest iPhones – later this year.
The U.K. is relatively late to the VoLTE party. According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), VoLTE is currently available from 25 operators in 16 countries, including the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Canada, among others.
