Assuming the reach of LTE-M is appreciably greater than standard LTE, would it make sense to allow phones to place calls over LTE-M as a fallback, especially in remote areas? Are there any products available now that allow voice comms over LTE-M?
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I’m a bit out of my depth on the technical side of this question, but I think so. LTE-M is certainly fast enough to support audio streaming, but this is not the same as VoLTE. It would be more like a WhatsApp or Facetime call, as opposed to a proper telephone call. As such you’d need a much stronger signal and higher transfer speeds than are required for dedicated voice protocols.
Also given the cost of standard mobile plans with unlimited calls and texts vs the cost of unlimited data plans, the network infrastructure for data is presumably much more expensive than the infrastructure needed for voice.
I’m just reasoning though, maybe someone else actually knows.
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That’s interesting - I was thinking just the opposite - that LTE-M, which is intended for low power IoT devices, would need LESS signal than VoLTE, and thus, the reach would be greater. Also, regarding data rates, I was thinking that a low bitrate voice codec could be employed. Quality may not be great, but that’d be fine. I’m just surmising though - I don’t know much about LTE-M yet, and you may be completely correct.
Thanks for your interest in any case.
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No worries. I’ve actually seen someone from the Telstra IoT team post here in the past. Might even be worth shooting them an email - I’m sure they’d be able to give you a solid answer.
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