Vodafone promises better battery life for your mobile as it pushes VoLTE calling

Vodafone is the first telecoms firm in Germany to offer Voice over LTE (VoLTE) calls, a move that should allow calls to be connected more quickly than older technologies and be less of a drain on smartphone batteries.

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The announcement, made to coincide with the start of the CeBIT trade fair in Hannover, will see Germany join several European countries soon to get VoLTE calling. Vodafone began rolling out VoLTE in Spain last year and will introduce it in the UK from this summer.

With LTE conceived as a data-only network, voice calls have traditionally been carried over 3G networks or over VoIP.

VoLTE calls can reportedly be connected in about two seconds, compared to five to seven seconds using these older wireless standards. Using VoLTE could also increase the sound quality of calls, according to Vodafone.

VoLTE requires compatible smartphones but some existing models can receive firmware updates to support calls using the newer wireless standard.

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• Swisscom hits speed dial with VoLTE and 450Mbps LTE-A network
• Telstra and Ericsson eye 5G
• Singapore telcos to launch VoLTE by mid-2014