VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is here in Australia sooner than you know it. Last week, Telstra announced that they would be enabling their new 4G calling capability (VoLTE) over to Telstra post-paid customers gradually.
Today, I saw a carrier settings update on my iPhone 6 running iOS 9.01 and it was probably not a coincident that I found this news out (which I somehow missed last week). On my iPhone settings running iOS 9, there is now a new option to enable VoLTE.
How to enable VoLTE on the iPhone
[1] Go to “Settings”
[2] Go to “Mobile”
[3] Go to “Enable 4G”
[4] Check “Voice & Data” (previously, it would have been “Data Only”
VoLTE benefits / Why you should turn VoLTE On
When VoLTE is supported and enabled on your phone and carrier, a phone call can be integrated into the 4G LTE data stream (previously, all phone calls had to go through 3G – though you probably would not be aware of this).
As a result, if you turn VoLTE On:
- You can get HD voice calling quality (clearer voice calls) thanks to the 4G superiority over 3G.
- Faster Call Start-Up time. Normally, you press on a Contact’s number on the Address Book and you’d have to wait for a while before you hear the connecting tone. With VoLTE, it would only take 1-2 seconds to connect to the other end. That few seconds may save you during an emergency.
- 4G connection will be maintained while on call, instead of reverting back to 3G. This way, you’d still get a fast internet connection (if you need to access data while you are on call at the same time).
Even if it’s not your turn yet to enjoy VoLTE, you can at least turn the setting on first – just in case. When the time comes, you’ll definitely feel it.
“But how do I really know that I’m on VoLTE?” – you asked? If you can’t feel it, there is a simple test that you can do to find out if VoLTE is already enabled on your handset and carrier:
[1] Make a phone call with your phone.
[2] Look at the connection on top, if it turns from 4G into 3G while ringing, then you are not on VoLTE yet.
Interesting times. Now I can’t wait for VoWiFi (Voice over Wi-Fi).
