LONDON -- The GSMA welcomes the announcement by South Korea’s mobile network operators to launch the world’s first commercial interconnected VoLTE service. The service, which is supported by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning as well as the GSMA, was officially unveiled by Minister Yang Hee Choi this week and will launch later this month. It will deliver higher quality calls and seamless switching between voice and video, as well as faster connection speeds to subscribers of all three networks. Currently, VoLTE services are only available to subscribers of the same network.

“The commercial launch of interconnected VoLTE services across South Korea’s three operators is a huge milestone for our industry and we congratulate them for being the first to market,” commented Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA, “Interconnected VoLTE delivers a real step change in call quality to consumers with a seamless switch between voice and video as well as faster connection speeds. At the GSMA we work closely with mobile operators from around the world to accelerate the adoption of all-IP communications and we hope that South Korea’s example will pave the way for many more interconnected VoLTE services in other markets.”

GSM Association (GSMA)