Globe Telecom Inc. said it is rolling out  Voice over LTE or VoLTE service to Visayas and Mindanao in 2021 to further boost the mobile and browsing experience of its customers in those regions.

The Ayala-led telco said the expansion of its VoLTE coverage will include the entire provinces of Cebu, Davao Del Sur and Davao Del Norte as early as January next year.

VoLTE is the standard high-speed wireless communication for mobile phones using 4G LTE instead of the traditional voice networks being used by 2G and 3G.  It will become the standard once the 2G and 3G technology become obsolete.  

VoLTE has many advantages over the old voice services of 2G and 3G networks. It has voice capacity that is three times more than 3G and up to six times compared to 2G, allowing the network to accommodate more customers placing calls at the same time, enable faster call set-up, provide clearer voice quality, and lower instances of dropped calls. 

Furthermore, VoLTE allows users to simultaneously connect to the Internet while on a call and this provides an uninterrupted mobile browsing experience especially with online gaming and video streaming.  

“We are bringing the VoLTE service in these provinces so that our customers will experience better, clearer and more reliable text and call services which our customers in NCR, Rizal, Cavite and Bulacan are now enjoying,” Albert de Larrazabal, Globe Chief Commercial Officer said.

“The pandemic has spurred Globe to look for ways to make mobile experience better for its customers, which is very important in these difficult times,”he added.

An added complement to VoLTE is Voice over WiFI (VoWiFi) or WiFi Calling, which helps address indoor mobile coverage problems such as voice calls affected by the distance between the mobile phone and the nearest network tower, building walls that block wireless signals, and poor signal inside a home or building. Depending on the capacity and signal strength of their Wi-Fi service and a VoWiFi-capable mobile phone, VoWiFi can resolve these concerns because customers can use their existing Wi-FI connection to make phone calls.

VoLTE and VoWiFi calls will be charged just like a regular call but customers who are registered to a Globe unli call promo can also have unli VoLTE and VoWiFi calls within the Globe network.