Globe Telecoms should soon roll out its voice over LTE (VoLTE) roaming service providing seamless and clear voice calls for customers traveling abroad.
The Ayala-led telco has successfully conducted technical tests on outbound and inbound voice over LTE (VoLTE) roaming with Airtel of India preparatory to the shift of some overseas telcos still operating legacy networks.
The move highlights Globe’s commitment to provide an excellent and sustainable international roaming experience for customers as VoLTE has faster call setup times and clearer voice quality than 2G and 3G.
VoLTE is the standard for high-speed wireless communication in devices as smartphones, data terminals, IoT devices and wearables. The technology uses 4G networks to transmit voice and data.
“Globe will continue to innovate and invest in new technologies to ensure that our customers have the best service. We are excited to roll out VoLTE Roaming and provide them with a seamless and enjoyable experience while traveling in foreign destinations,” Coco Domingo, Globe vice president for postpaid and international business said.
A number of telecom companies in other countries are planning to retire their 2G and 3G networks to make way for more efficient 4G and 5G networks.
As a result, Globe’s international roaming customers latched on to partners that have already decommissioned 2G and 3G will no longer be able to make and receive traditional voice calls or send and receive text messages, including OTPs which are needed for secure banking transactions.
Calls and texts over 4G and 5G networks require customers to have VoLTE-capable handsets and the availability of VoLTE roaming service.
On its way to providing VoLTE roaming capability, Globe’s technical team performed successful VoLTE outbound roaming and VoLTE inbound roaming calls with Airtel. This demonstrates the readiness of its mobile network to support outbound and inbound VoLTE roaming.
While the service is still being built, Globe customers in countries that no longer have any 2G or 3G access may opt to subscribe to data roaming offers that allow them to make and receive calls and messages through over-the-top (OTT) apps such as Viber, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
