Bittium conducts the first VoLTE call in Public Safety LTE band 14 environment
While VoLTE is being used in commercial LTE networks for voice services, this was the first time that a VoLTE call was completed on the network environment that will be used on the dedicated Public Safety Broadband network by FirstNet in the USA.
This is an important milestone, as the FirstNet network will be a greenfield deployment of an LTE-only network, with no legacy circuit switched voice services, which was traditionally used for voice calls. In an LTE-only network, the voice communications are handled via VoLTE.
The call was made at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus in Boulder, Colorado. Bittium has a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with NIST and is one of the industry partners in the NIST Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division’s testbed designed to evaluate advanced broadband equipment and software for emergency first responders.
“Successful VoLTE call in the FirstNet network environment represents a significant technology milestone and is proving the technical maturity of the system. It also demonstrates the capabilities and interoperability of our Bittium Tough Mobile smartphone to different kind of network environments. We are very pleased to have been able to work closely with the NIST and, with the test network environment in their campus, to achieve the VoLTE call”, says Bittium’s Jani Lyrintzis, General Manager, Business development and sales in the US.
Bittium Tough Mobile smartphone is packed with innovative features tailored for government agencies, authorities, first responders and other professionals with critical and secure communication needs. Based on the Android 6.0 operating system, its unique mechanical structure combines extreme durability with a modern and sophisticated smartphone look-and-feel. Bittium Tough Mobile smartphone incorporates a hardware-based security platform, global support for LTE frequency bands, professional grade audio and acoustics, and dual-SIM capability for carrier flexibility.
