LONDON--Voice over LTE (VoLTE) has the potential to open several new revenue streams for operators beyond just increasing data income, the VP of EMEA business development for Alcatel-Lucent said.
Speaking during the LTE Voice Summit here, Olivier Bruyndonckx said VoLTE provides operators with an opportunity to generate new revenues by providing what he terms 'digital lifestyle solutions'.
"We believe it's the sum of different applications, different services that help the service providers to generate new revenues," Bruyndonckx explained.
The EMEA VP told delegates the incremental revenues service providers can generate by deploying VoLTE more than make the technology worth investing in. "It's time for the service provider to start thinking about that new set of revenues that will be offered by IMS on fixed and on mobile," he said, adding: "VoLTE shows concrete business results today where it is implemented."
Operators can use VoLTE to enrich conversations, for example, by ensuring that all phones in the home ring when a user is in residence, but only the mobile rings when the user is on the move.
"Why? Because the IMS VoLTE phone…is just telling the network…'ok, here you can ring'. It can be the fixed phone, it can be the tablet," Bruyndonckx noted, adding that fixed networks "can be part of that ecosystem" by utilising Wi-Fi to route calls to a user's devices in the home.
"Is it science fiction? No. It exists today," Bruyndonckx said, explaining that one of Alcatel-Lucent's partners has already developed a proximity platform that allows operators to "deliver that additional experience to the end users."
Another function available today is the ability to ensure incoming calls do not interrupt applications being used on smartphones, Bruyndonckx said--a fact borne out by Seunghyun Sung, general manager at South Korean operator LG Uplus, who in an earlier presentation noted the company has already deployed such a feature.
Bruyndonckx said VoLTE can also be used to monitor users' vehicles and issue alarm calls when necessary. The service could provide users with in-car video to check who is driving it, allowing them to alert the police if it is stolen for example.
"That kind of connected car solution also exists today," Bruyndonckx noted, adding that operators "can monetise that communication and that solution with, for example, the automotive industry or the instrument industry."
VoLTE will also allow operators to enhance privacy, for example by providing the now car-less user with a temporary phone number when they call for a taxi. "That temporary phone number will be the one used for the one-time communication that [the user] will have with the taxi driver.
"Nothing is fantastic, nothing is spectacular, but those little services are all different ways all the service providers could monetise information that they have…With VoLTE everybody will have the possibility to access these services without a lot of conditions," Bruyndonckx explained.
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