Reliance Industries’ telecom subsidiary Infotel Broadband will use technology from the Moscow-based Spirit DSP to offer voice over its fourth generation network.
With this technology, Reliance will be able to offer Skype-like voice plus video calling services on its broadband network.
Spirit DSP said that Reliance intends to invest $10 billion in the broadband network and has turned to Spirit's software products for voice and video calls instead of waiting for phone makers who are slow in offering handsets transmitting voice and video in 4G networks.
“The lack of mobile devices supporting VoLTE (Voice-over-LTE) drives a growing number of carriers to implement a software-only product, which is more flexible, scalable and offers a quicker time to market,’’ Spirit said in a statement.
“While the number of LTE networks is growing, the quantity of mobile devices models supporting VoLTE is extremely small. LTE phones and tablets mainly support only data transmission over an LTE modem, while voice and video are going via 2G/3G network. It’s an awkward situation for mobile operators who had hoped that phone OEMs would flood the market with 4G LTE-ready phones,’’ said Spirit Vice-President Alex Kravchenko.
“Carriers in dozens of countries now plan to or already deploy VVoIP services under their own brands in an effort to stop subscribers from switching over to top providers such as Skype, Viber and WhatsApp. The TeamSpirit software engines enable the transmission of voice and video packets via LTE modems and help operators use mobile devices available in today’s market. Reliance’s decision to follow the growing trend is a good example of carriers’ flexibility to create their own competitive services faster.’’
Spirit video engines are available on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and allow the users of smartphones, tablets and notebooks across different operating systems to make video calls from iPhone to Android smartphones to PC, as well as participate in HD videoconferencing with automatic quality adaptation to specific network conditions, screen size and processing power.