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Seamless voice-to-video call switching with LTE

At Mobile World Congress, LG demonstrated an interesting technology at its booth: cellular video calls over LTE. What made it special was that LTE voice calls could seamlessly switch over to video calling, too!
By Neal Gompa
Video calling

At Mobile World Congress, LG demonstrated an interesting technology at its booth: cellular video calls over LTE. What made it special was that LTE voice calls could seamlessly switch over to video calling if both ends supported video calls.

According to LG(Opens in a new window), the video calling feature is implemented using a newly released standard for video calls over IMS called Conversational Video Service. This specification was released by the GSM Association at the end of December and adds on to the current VoLTE (Voice over LTE) specification by adding support for video calls and handing over from voice calls to video calls.

What will surprise most people is that this is not a new idea. When the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, aka 3G GSM) standards were developed, the specification for circuit-switched services included specifications on how to do video calls as well as voice calls. In fact, the UMTS specification indicates that there is actually a channel in the circuit-switched network for video calls. UMTS specifies that there is a 12.2Kbps channel reserved for voice and a 64Kbps-128Kbps channel reserved for video, with the rest being utilized for packet-switched services (basically internet access).

Windows Mobile video call over UMTSNeedless to say, it never really caught on. The pricing for video calls (compared to voice calls) made it not affordable for many customers, so most UMTS network operators no longer advertise the service. Network operators in Asian markets have not given up on the technology and have since made it as affordable as a traditional 3G voice call. For markets like Japan, it has somewhat caught on. Even so, it is not used as frequently as regular voice calls. In markets like India, it has yet to catch on because most users do not even subscribe to 3G services.

An interesting note: the only Android phones that support UMTS video calls are the Samsung Galaxy series of phones. Other than that, only Symbian and Windows Mobile (not Windows Phone) phones support UMTS video calls. American carrier-branded models will have these features stripped out, though.

As for LTE video calls, it may catch on if mobile network operators realize that video calls need to be as cheap as voice calls in order for it to succeed. Otherwise, this technology is just going to fade away like its predecessor. With the threat of becoming dumb pipes for VoIP services like Skype, mobile network operators may try a little harder to push this service in developed markets this time around.

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