MegaFon Tajikistan has claimed the country’s first commercial VoLTE launch, enabling high quality IP voice calls over its 4G mobile network, with shorter call setup time, plus simultaneous high speed mobile internet and voice connections. The cellco’s technical director Rafil Aglyamov declared: ‘I am sure that our subscribers will also appreciate the opportunity to use the internet during a call to navigate or view photos on social networks. Previously, during a call, the subscriber’s device returned to the 3G voice network, which led to a loss of internet speed. Now, both voice traffic and data are transmitted on the same network. This technology, which is being used in the Republic for the first time, will be available to the majority of subscribers using the mobile data transmission service.’ The press release clarifies that VoLTE services ‘will be activated by network segments depending on the number of users whose phones support the VoLTE function,’ adding that ‘most smartphones released after 2018 support VoLTE.’
MegaFon also noted that implementation of VoLTE technology gives network capacity advantages, stating: ‘With the same number of base stations, communication services can be used by three times more subscribers than in the 3G network.’
MegaFon has been steadily expanding its 4G LTE network coverage, most recently announcing the introduction of 4G in the mountainous district of Shamsiddin Shokhin (Shurabad) near the Tajik-Afghan border in the highest-altitude area of the Khatlon region. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database says that MegaFon Tajikistan launched LTE network services in September 2015, and claimed LTE coverage of 43 cities/towns by November 2020, up from 26 cities/towns twelve months earlier.
Source: https://www.commsupdate.com/articles/2020/12/07/megafon-launches-tajikistans-first-volte-service/