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MEF has published a new report in partnership with Kaleido Intelligence on the VoLTE roaming market progress, the impact of the pandemic on VoLTE roaming rollout, and the outlook for VoLTE roaming usage over the next 5 years.

Chief of Strategy & Insights at Kaleido, Nitin Bhas, shares a quick overview on what to expect from the new report which is available to download now.

The number of VoLTE service subscriptions is estimated to reach 3.8 billion by the end of 2021; this is forecast to reach 7.2 billion by the end of 2026. VoLTE is making good progress in domestic markets; however, roaming deployments are still patchy around the world.

With more operators focusing on 5G roaming rollout and with 4G becoming mainstream, VoLTE roaming has become necessary for operators worldwide. This is compounded by a rising number of 2G and 3G network closures.

A significant number of operators have either shut down or announced closure dates for 2G and 3G networks; a tracked list is available on request from Kaleido. While it is still early days for 5G worldwide, it is quite evident that operators will need to roll out VoLTE networks more urgently as in a 5G standalone network scenario, only fallback to a VoLTE network is supported.

A significant number of operators have either shut down or announced closure dates for 2G and 3G networks; a tracked list is available on request from Kaleido. While it is still early days for 5G worldwide, it is quite evident that operators will need to roll out VoLTE networks more urgently as in a 5G standalone network scenario, only fallback to a VoLTE network is supported.

However, the market is witnessing an accelerated rollout of VoLTE networks alongside increasing VoLTE roaming partnership announcements.

In a survey conducted by Kaleido in Q4 2020, around 31% of respondents stated that planned VoLTE roaming rollouts will continue as per pre-COVID-19 roadmap, while 23% reported that negotiations and roaming agreements have been suspended until further notice.

Kaleido forecasts that voice calls made by 4G and 5G roamers in 2026 via VoLTE/Vo5G network will represent nearly 40 Petabytes of data traffic.

In this free report, we explain the outlook for VoLTE Roaming, the challenges faced by mobile operators and why they must immediately prioritise VoLTE roaming deployments.

This report forms part of the new series of short, concise reports published by MEF and Kaleido Intelligence, looking at the following key areas:

  • 5G Roaming
  • BCE in Roaming
  • Blockchain in Roaming
  • IoT Roaming
  • VoLTE Roaming

The new VoLTE Roaming whitepaper and the other roaming reports, are all available to download for free now.

Nitin Bhas

Nitin Bhas, Chief of Strategy & Insights, Kaleido Intelligence

  

Roaming Reports : Free downloads

Five free roaming reports from Kaleido intelligence are available to download now. The new outlook for VoLTE Roaming explores the challenges faced by mobile operators and why they must immediately prioritise VoLTE roaming deployments.

Download Now >

MEF