MetroPCS in aggressive LTE voice plan

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MetroPCS in aggressive LTE voice plan

Has migrated SMS to its all-IP system, and will start to move voice in Q112, accelerating CDMA switch-off

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 5 August, 2011

READ MORE: Spectrum | US | VoIP | LTE

Lack of voice support may be the big headache for LTE adopters, but the US CDMA carriers are determined to address it rapidly. MetroPCS is following Verizon Wireless in announcing it will support voice over LTE from early next year.

The flat rate carrier will introduce the voice services in the first quarter, CEO Roger Linquist said on the firm's earnings call, and begin to move its circuit switched CDMA voice over to its new all-IP system. The US frontrunners have a far more aggressive roadmap for 4G voice than their GSM counterparts, most of which will use an interim solution, such as fallback to circuit networks, for some years before they introduce fully fledged VoLTE, a carrier-class VoIP solution based on an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem).

Verizon has been one of the most ambitious adopters of IMS, as it aims to migrate its CDMA users to its more efficient LTE network far more rapidly than most 3G operators would contemplate. For this reason, it plans to overlay nearly all its 3G footprint by the end of 2012, and is so confident that it says it will have LTE-only handsets from next year, as the coverage will be good enough to do without the CDMA connection in most areas.

MetroPCS has a simpler LTE system geared to greater efficiency for its existing flat rate services rather than innovative new business models - at this stage anyway. It launched the world's first LTE handset, the sub-smart Samsung Craft, and now has smartphones too. But its low cost model does not mean it is not a technical innovator. It has already migrated many of its SMS and MMS services to IMS, a step that few carriers in the world have planned to take until far later.

"We are planning to begin introducing VoLTE-capable handsets early next year to move voice as well as data traffic to our LTE network," said Linquist. That will help MetroPCS to use its limited spectrum capacity more efficiently by turning off CDMA. It has LTE running in 14 major markets so far, and by early next year, it will have overlaid its entire regional footprint of 146m POPs with 4G, using its AWS spectrum.

The changes will require a boost to capex spending at a time when the flat rate operator saw slower subscriber net additions in Q2 - though its profit and revenue were up. MetroPCS added 200,000 customers in Q2, compared with 303,000 a year earlier and 725,000 in the first quarter, but hopes improved data performance and its LTE offerings will help ignite new growth again. Its capex bill will be between $900m and $1bn for 2011, up from the previous estimate of $700m to $900m. That relates to increased data capacity for CDMA as well as to LTE build-out, including new cell sites and a core network upgrade, said Linquist.