As of Nov 2021, Telkom VoLTE users in South Africa have reached 4.6M, becoming the largest VoLTE service provider in Africa.
Telkom claims to serve 16M mobile users, and launched VoLTE in 2018 and 5G NSA in 2020 respectively. Regarding voice services, Telkom focuses on VoLTE services. In order to develop VoLTE, Telkom orchestrated a holistic KPI system and optimization plan, which has been proven to improve the VoLTE user experience significantly. Through intelligent identification of VoLTE users and auto-provisioning, Telkom gives users the steps to activate VoLTE services. In addition, Telkom states its cooperation with Apple, Samsung, OPPO and other handset manufacturers to turn on the terminal VoLTE switch by default. With the above measures, the number of Telkom VoLTE subscribers has increased by over 3M in the last one year it affirms. The rapid development of VoLTE enables Telkom to re-farm 2G/3G spectrum for the development of 4G and 5G.
“We had a successful introduction of VoLTE and subscriber migration from 2G/3G to LTE and VoLTE, and would like to shutdown 2G/3G services to make the spectrum available for newer technologies. The legacy services do not allow us to immediately turn off 2G/ 3G.” said Brite Devassy, Executive of Technology & Strategy, Telkom SA. On October 13, 2021, at the 5G Core Summit in Dubai, Brite Devassy gave a speech about the evolution of Telkom’s voice network.
Telkom has always been committed to leveraging cutting-edge technologies of the telecom industry to roll out new services and optimize networks. Telkom chose Huawei’s Single Voice Core solution to develop VoLTE. This initiative enables 2G/3G/4G/5G/Fixed users to access the same IMS network, solving the operation & maintenance and investment problems caused by the coexistence of multi-generation networks. The simplified network enables Telkom to pack lightly and focus on 4G/5G. “The timing of the Huawei SVC product is perfect for us.” said Brite Devassy.
The achievement of VoLTE has showcased Telkom’s capabilities to utilize innovative solutions. Telkom insists on continuing to enable more and more users to enjoy high-quality VoLTE calls while surfing the Internet at high speed.
