Bench mark Publik

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2015MAY



The P3 U.S. Public Benchmark

2015 tested VoLTE service

against legacy voice imple-mentaons with a clear out-

come: VoLTE is ready for eve-

ryday use and signicantly

improves the customer expe-

rience. Using the latest high-

tech measurement equip-

ment, P3 tested the voice

services of all four U.S. wire-

less networks in the Wash-ington, D.C. metro area with

a primary focus on compar-

ing the newest VoLTE serv-

ices to legacy voice services.

The test cases were designed

to reect average customerbehavior and were all based

on proven P3 measurement

methodologies.

Results show that the three

exisng U.S. VoLTE deploy-

ments in Washington, D.C.

provide signicant improve-

ments over the legacy voice

services and are reasonablyreliable. Sprint has yet to an-

nounce its VoLTE plans. With

sucient LTE coverage and

during VoLTE calls on the

same carrier, the user experi-

ence improves dramacally.Overall, VoLTE channel call

setup success and call drop

raos also were on an im-

pressive level for such a new

technology.

In addion, all U.S. carriers

sll have to implement VoLTE

calling across networks and

VoLTE roaming, to broadenthe number of customers

who benet from these im-

provements.

The P3 U.S. PublicBenchmark 2015

In the rst independent public benchmark of Voice over LTE services in the

U.S., P3 measurements conrm that VoLTE brings signicant improvementsover exisng legacy circuit switched voice services, delivering crystal clearvoice quality, ultra-fast connecon setup and paving the way for futurerich communicaons services. Moreover, with VoLTE, U.S. carriers havesuccessfully leapfrogged the world’s best state-of-the-art networks in termsof voice quality and call setup speeds.

2



Thus, the U.S. is a prime area of focus for

P3 communicaons, an internaonal

leader in mobile benchmarking. This

P3 U.S. Public Benchmark 2015 isdesigned to provide a clear, objecve

and technically sound overview of

current VoLTE network performance.

It highlights the carriers’ leading-

edge VoLTE innovaons and reveals

potenal weak spots in wireless

service quality as perceived by

customers. P3’s holisc approach

to mobile network benchmarking

and opmizaon has helped shape

the wireless customer experience

around the world. In the last year,

P3 performed network tesng and

opmizaon projects in over 42

countries, including Australia, India,

Qatar and the U.S..

P3 has performed annual public

benchmarks in Germany since 2002

and in Austria and Switzerland since

2009. Australia and the UK were

added in 2014, and P3 is expanding

its measurements to addional

countries in 2015 and 2016. In

parallel, P3 is currently rolling out a

crowd sourcing soluon to provide

superior network insights around

the globe. P3 plans to perform a

naonwide U.S. Public Benchmark in

the rst half of 2016.

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland,

P3’s annual benchmark is widely

accepted as the most objecve

and thorough test of network

performance, drawing on hundreds

of thousands of voice and data

measurements. It has signicantly

improved market transparency

regarding measurement and

comparison of network quality.

U.S. wireless carriers have deployed

and operated 4G LTE technology

across large porons of their networks

since 2010; LTE-capable smartphones

are now available everywhere and

dominate handset sales. In the second

half of 2014, VoLTE was introduced

by three of the four Tier-1 carriers in

select markets across the country.

But VoLTE is not yet the default

technology used for voice calls; today

many customers with VoLTE capable

phones must opt-in to this technology

(see page 6). Thus, the legacy circuit

switched voice service sll has a

dominant impact on the wireless

customer experience. Implemenng

good legacy voice service is sll a

parcular challenge for the carriers

when smartphones are not VoLTE-

capable and use LTE for data. For

each phone call non-VoLTE devices

have to switch back to legacy voice

network standards like UMTS or

CDMA. To do so, a device must rst

detect a legacy voice network and

then switch to it. This process, called

Circuit Switched Fall Back (CSFB), can

lengthen call setup mes and increase

the possibility of failure. When VoLTE

is used to make voice calls, this

complicated CSFB procedure is not

necessary. VoLTE-enabled devices

remain on the 4G LTE network to

iniate voice calls. The challenge

for VoLTE is that an established and

ongoing voice call must either remain

on the 4G LTE network for the duraon

of the call, or seamlessly be handed

o to the legacy 2G or 3G networks

when moving out of 4G LTE coverage.

For these reasons, the P3 U.S. Public

Benchmark 2015 was conducted

using advanced VoLTE-capable 4G LTE

devices and compared legacy circuit-

switched and VoLTE technologies.

Introducon

Background

3

P3 selected Washington, D.C. because it represents a

level playing eld in terms of the spectrum availableto all carriers and VoLTE deployment. In addion, the

results can be compared to P3’s measurements in capital

cies around the world.

P3’s benchmark was de-

signed to test whether or

not VoLTE implementaons

are providing the stable

and high quality service

promised and the level ofimprovement over legacy

services.

The U.S. is the largest and most advanced mobile communicaons market in the world. Leading U.S. carriers already

operate some of the newest 4G LTE technologies and are moving very quickly to deploy them naonwide.



The benchmark results are based on

two weeks of intensive tesng. Two

specially-equipped measurement

vehicles took thousands of test sam-

ples while travelling throughout the

Washington, D.C. metro area on andinside the Capital Beltway (I-495).

To ensure fair compeon between

carriers, each company was informed

several weeks in advance about test

methodologies, the main focus of the

test cases, the target area and the

test period. It was up to each carrier

to decide if and how to best prepare

for the test.

At the same me, the P3 benchmark

was designed to be strictly indepen-

dent and imparal. The nal say for

the test design, the routes and the

results interpretaon was P3’s. And,

needless to say, the carriers had ab-

solutely no inuence over the nal

results. Performance assessment for

the P3 U.S. Public Benchmark 2015

was based on P3’s extensive world-wide network measurement and op-

mizaon experience.

P3 communicaons has well over a

decade of experience in network test-

ing of this type. P3 works with clients

around the world including wireless

network carriers, device manufactur-

ers and regulatory authories.

ApproachIn 2014 alone,

P3’s test vehicles

covered morethan 620,000

miles and

compiled more

than 40,000

measurementhours in 42

countries across

5 connents.

The route covered the dense downtown area of the

naon’s capital, as well as the quiet residenal parts of

Washington, D.C. to provide the most representave

data possible.

4



Timeline 2015

About P3 communicaonsP3 communicaons is a leading internaonal consulng, engineering

and tesng services company. P3 communicaons is part of the

P3 group, which has over 2,700 employees worldwide and posted a

turnover of more than $320 million in 2014.

The company provides a broad porolio of independent technical

and management consulng services including network planning,

engineering, end-to-end opmizaon, security, QoS and QoE tesng,

internaonal benchmarking, device tesng and acceptance services.

P3 communicaons’ clients include network operators, equipment

vendors, device manufacturers, public safety organizaons and

regulatory authories around the world; the company’s own experts

combine strong technical know-how with many years of management

experience.

5



L T

6

Today’s wireless carriers are

connually challenged to keep up

with the explosion of wireless data

trac, rst seen in xed networks.

Demand for wireless data quickly

outpaced the capabilies of 2G and3G networks and was the main driver

behind the development of 4G LTE

technology. The inial role of 4G

LTE was to ooad data trac from

the legacy networks and provide

customers with a superior data

experience, which worked well unl

now and will further improve in the

next years. It also promised to make

more ecient use of expensive

wireless spectrum, unlock new and

untapped spectrum, simplify network

infrastructure and provide a clear

path for future innovaon.

However, one piece was sorely

missing to really enable the carriers

to start replacing their legacy

infrastructure with LTE and LTE-

Advanced technology: the basic voice

call was not possible over LTE.

This started to change with theavailability of Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE)

technology. VoLTE uses 4G LTE

networks to carry voice calls instead of

the legacy 2G or 3G networks. Based

on the same Voice-over-IP technology

already long used by the Internet’s

xed IP connecons, VoLTE makes

use of the packet data bearer instead

of the legacy circuit switched bearer.

Well-funconing VoLTE service allows

carriers to re-purpose (“re-farm”)

valuable wireless spectrum currently

used less eciently by legacy 2G and

3G technology. Moreover, moving

voice calls to the more ecient 4GLTE technology, will allow carriers

to phase out 2G and 3G networks

over me, further simplifying

network infrastructure and handset

complexity.

For consumers, VoLTE comes with

a promise of “high denion” call

quality with higher delity voice

signals and wider audio spectrum.

Consumers who experience HD voiceservice by placing VoLTE-to-VoLTE calls

within the same carrier are amazed

by the clarity of the voice connecon,

asking “How close are you?” Other

VoLTE

With nearly 400

commercial LTE

networks in operaon

worldwide, 4G LTE has

been very successful in

complemenng exisng

legacy 2G and 3G

networks.



benets include typically shorter call

setup mes and the future promise of

rich communicaons services (RCS)

such as video calling.

VoLTE is just the rst step into a

new world of communicang. Theunderlying IP Mulmedia Subsystem

(IMS) technology allows video chat

and a wide range of completely

new services and features including

handover or ooading to WiFi

networks.

The VoLTE revoluon has just begun.

As of April 2015, only 16 commercial

VoLTE services had been launched

worldwide. The vast majority of VoLTEdeployments are in South-East Asia,

while three are in the United States –

AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

These three U.S. carries completed

“so” launches of VoLTE in the third

quarter of 2014; carrier promoon

of the service has been minimal to

date and many customers with VoLTE

capable phones must acvate this

feature manually.

Prerequisites for VoLTE are either

good conguous 4G LTE coverageor a methodology to handover an

ongoing VoLTE call from 4G LTE to the

circuit switched legacy service when

the handset leaves 4G LTE coverage.

This is one reason why carriers like

AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon invested

heavily in the deployment of 4G LTE

infrastructure.

VoLTE now has been in operaon for

more than six months, which is a very

long me in the fast-paced wireless

industry. In this rst public benchmarkto include VoLTE measurements, we

looked at how this new service stacks

up against legacy technology and if

it is delivering on its core promises

of beer voice quality and faster call

setup mes.

Verizon Wireless launched

VoLTE naonwide on Day

One, while AT&T and

T-Mobile launched in a

few markets and added

markets over me.

Is VoLTE

ready toreplace

legacy

voiceservice

and

becomethe new

default

choicefor voice

calls?



The basis for the benchmark was the proven P3 measurement

methodology, used by the company for similar tesng around

the world. It is connuously adapted to the latest state-of-the

art technologies and services. The methodology ensures a

fair comparison of results between all networks tested,

and yields reliable outcomes. Addionally, it enables a

worldwide comparison of network performance.

Methodology

SmartphonesEvery year P3 reviews and decides

which measurement device will be

used for the upcoming tests.

The selected smartphone must meet

a detailed set of requirements. It is

very important that it be widely used

in the target market to ensure the

benchmark results are representave

of the customer experience; P3 only

considers market-leading devices.

The test smartphones also must

accommodate installaon of all

necessary measurement soware,

making an Android operang

system mandatory. Special local

requirements are reected by using

local versions of the device and, if

available, carrier specic rmware.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 LTE Cat 4

was selected for the P3 U.S. Public

Benchmark 2015. This device is based

on the well-established Qualcomm

Snapdragon 801 chipset, supports

VoLTE and download-speeds up to

150Mbit/s.

T-Mobile and Sprint device versions

support circuit switched voice calling

with wideband codecs. The

AT&T device version used Carrier

Aggregaon during the benchmark.

The Sprint device version does not

support VoLTE.

It was ensured that any fair use

policies, somemes used to control

data download speeds for customers

with very high data usage, did notinterfere with the test results. For

the VoLTE measurement phones, P3

opted in to the carriers’ VoLTE services

and enabled it on the phones.

Inuence of MeasurementDevices on the ResultsVoLTE is a fairly new technology not

only for the carriers and network

infrastructure providers, but also for

device manufacturers, which had to

build in this completely new way ofmaking phone calls.

In addion, compared to the highly

mature legacy voice technologies,

VoLTE network protocols demand

greater interacon between the

network and the device. At this early

stage of VoLTE maturity, the inuence

of the smartphones used can be

signicant; dierent smartphones

can yield dierent results. The goal

of this benchmark is to compare the

new VoLTE service against the legacy

voice service as a whole, which can

be reasonably accomplished with a

single measurement device. For an

accurate comparison of individual

carrier VoLTE implementaons,

however, more mature VoLTE

smartphones will be required.

To duplicate the

customer experience, P3

anonymously purchased

the SIM cards, voice and

data plans from normal

retail outlets.

All smartphones were

mounted in a proprietary

antenna aenuaonbox inside the vehicles

to ensure proper test

condions with added

signal aenuaon to

reect a balance of real-

world condions.

ant nuatr

8



Measurement SystemEach measurement vehicle was

equipped with P3’s custom-built

proprietary high-end measurement

systems that provide real-world

condions ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ one legacy voice, one

VoLTE voice (except for Sprint) and

one data test smartphone per carrier.

All voice test calls were mobile to

mobile, and set up from one car tothe other. Voice measurements were

taken while the cars were moving.

One pair of smartphones per carrier

was congured to preferably use

VoLTE between cars where available

and legacy (or mixed) voice where

VoLTE was not (connuously)

available. The other pair was set up to

always use the legacy circuit switched

implementaon between cars. One

of the legacy voice devices was

congured for LTE preferred mode

for data, which forced the networks

to employ Circuit Switched Fallback

(CSFB) if the device was in a 4G area.

Voice calls in 3G-only or 2G-only

coverage areas were operated

as usual. To simulate typical user

behavior, voice measurements were

conducted while the test devices

were handling small amounts of data

trac at the same me – in this case,

by receiving emails.Speech quality was evaluated

using the Perceptual Objecve

Listening Quality Analysis (ITU-T

P.863 POLQA) wideband algorithm.

POLQA-Wideband has become an

important measurement standard

for next-generaon networks, as

carriers deploy high-denion

voice services and oer compable

handsets. It delivers an advanced

level of benchmarking accuracy and

adds signicant new capabilies forwideband and super-wideband (HD)

voice signals, along with support for

the most recent voice coding and

VoIP transmission technologies.

Besides speech quality, key

performance metrics included call

setup mes, call setup success raos

and call drop raos.

1,300miles

50,000speech samples

140GB data

2test vans 7,000voice calls

Logiscs and RoutesThe tesng was conducted on and

inside the Washington, D.C. Capital

Beltway (I-495). The test vehicles

drove dierent routes within

Washington, D.C. to maximize the

area covered. To prevent the risk of

one car distorng the measurements

of the other, the drivers avoided

traveling in the same exact areas

at the same me. In total, the test

vehicles covered more than 1,300

miles. Across all services combined

on all networks, they conducted

roughly 7,000 voice calls with more

than 50,000 speech samples. In all,

more than 140 Gigabytes of data

were transferred.

Washington

Arlington

Bethesda Silver Spring

Hyasville

Annandale

Alexandria

I-495

Washington, D.C. Capital Beltway

Tesng route



ResultsIn order to see how VoLTE performs compared to the legacy voice service, we looked at both technologies independently

and compared the results. The big queson: Is VoLTE delivering on its promise?

VoLTE service on all three carrier networks and with the selected measurement device showed acceptable results in

connecng and holding VoLTE calls (availability and retainability) comparable to the legacy services. The P3 benchmark

focused on the core VoLTE promises of improved call setup mes and voice quality.

Not all call aempts of the “VoLTE

preferred” devices actually ended up

as VoLTE-to-VoLTE calls.

The other call aempts were set up

either as pure legacy calls, with only

one side on VoLTE and the other side

on legacy, failed to connect or med

out.

The measurement system was

congured to classify call aempts asmed-out if they take longer than 20

seconds to connect. This is plenty of

me for a pure VoLTE call.

Overall, the VoLTE channel call

setup success raos were on an

acceptable level with slight room for

improvement.

Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) is a

mechanism that helps when there is a

need to place a legacy voice call with

a device that is currently camping or

transferring data on the LTE network.

This can be the case either because

the device is not VoLTE enabled or

for some other reason VoLTE is not

available to set up the call. The device

thus needs to hand down to and

register in the legacy network and

then proceed with the call setup.Verizon Wireless doesn’t need this

mechanism because their devices

are registered in both LTE and legacy

network at the same me. This

increases device complexity, but

simplies the network infrastructure

and removes a potenal point of

failure. How does CSFB perform for

AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile?

The porons of call

aempts of the VoLTE-

preferred channels that did

not connect within the rst

20 seconds were between

0.50 and 1.09%.

Of all aempted calls

on the VoLTE-preferred

channels, the shares of

connected calls using

VoLTE technology on both

ends were between 97.3%

and 97.8%.

VoLTE Channel Call Setup Circuit Switched Fallback



CSFB for legacy devices

One legacy measurement device

was congured to prefer LTE for data

transmission, forcing it to employ

CSFB to place or receive a legacy voice

call, while the other was set to prefer

3G data technology, circumvenng

the need for CSFB. The below table

shows the CSFB success rao and theaverage and maximum me it took

to perform the CSFB procedures. It’s

interesng to see that both for Sprint

and T-Mobile, we observed a few

very long CSFB procedure duraons,

which can be problemac because

the device cannot be reached by

the network during that me, and

indicates a potenal for opmizaon.

The CSFB success raos and duraonsare comparable to other carriers

around the globe.

CSFB for VoLTE devices

The AT&T VoLTE measurement

phones only performed one CSFB

procedure to place a call. The CSFB

succeeded and the procedure took

only 0.68 seconds. For the T-Mobile

VoLTE channel, we measured 30 CSFB

aempts, 16 on the calling and 14 on

the receiving side. On average, theprocedure took 3.91 seconds, and

one CSFB aempt failed, resulng in

an unsuccessful call setup.

Carrier CSFB success raoAverage CSFB

duraonMaximum CSFB

duraon

AT&T 98.67% 1.57s 5.13s

Sprint 98.91% 2.19s 10.52s

T-Mobile 99.7% 1.45s 14.45s

Call setup me is the me it takes

between dialing a call on the calling

party and the ringing on the calledparty. Legacy networks – especially

when using mechanisms like CSFB

– typically have call setup mes

between 5 and 15 seconds, and

somemes even longer. A short

call setup me is desirable because

customers may abandon the call

aempt if it is too long.

The legacy voice implementaons

showed average call setup mes

between 6.1 and 7.8 secondsbut quite a few were longer than

15 seconds. VoLTE shows an

impressive improvement for all

three VoLTE carriers, especially

AT&T and Verizon. T-Mobile is

slightly slower but sll with very

good results.

Call Setup Time Improvements7

.0 0

2.10

7 .0 1

3.8 4

6 .1 6

7 .8 0

2.50

AT&T

T-Mobile

Sprint

Verizon

Call setup me: legacy VoLTE preferred



The POLQA algorithm was not the only conrmaon of the improvements that VoLTE brings to speech quality. Also

when comparing the spectral densies of the recorded speech sample for the dierent technologies under good radiocondions, the diagrams clearly show that the received VoLTE sample contains much higher frequencies than the

recorded legacy sample. This does not only result in a higher MOS score, but in beer voice clarity and experience for

customers. New VoLTE users oen are surprised to hear the dierence, asking “How close are you?”

P3 engineers also examined which wideband voice codecs predominated in each VoLTE implementaon. Even though

T-Mobile focuses on the higher bitrate voice codec (23.85 kbit/s), the voice quality results are more or less the same as

for AT&T and Verizon who use a 12.65 kbit/s codec.

Voice quality was measured by

playing reference samples on

the “talking” side and recording

the transmied samples on the

“listening” side. Then, the POLQA

wideband algorithm was applied

to derive a “Mean Opinion Score”

(MOS) on a scale between 1 and

4.75. Higher scores mean beer

voice quality.

The circuit switched MOS showed the

impact of the dierent technology

implementaons between the

carriers. Verizon and AT&T don’t

use wideband or HD codecs in their

CDMA and UMTS networks, which

resulted in average MOS scores

around 2.3. Both T-Mobile andSprint’s networks showed beer

average MOS scores of 2.77.

VoLTE with its HD voice codecs lis

the VoLTE-preferred channels of

the three VoLTE-carriers to speech

quality scores around 3.5-3.6. This

is an impressive improvement for

customers, especially those of AT&T

and Verizon, which have the lower

MOS scores on their legacy networks

compared to T-Mobile. Sprint is

clearly missing out on an opportunity

to improve the customer experience.

Voice Quality Improvements

Voice Quality (MOS - Mean Opinion Score)

A T & T

2 .

3 5

3 .

5 5

2 .

7 7

S p r i n t

2 .

7 7

T - M o b i l e

3 . 5 4

0

1

2

3

4

2 .

2 8

V e r i z o n

3 .

6 0

12



VoLTE Channel CallRetainabilityThe overall dropped call raos of

the VoLTE channel were only slightly

higher than the drop raos of thelegacy channel. This is impressive for

such a new technology with minor

room for improvement.

Both AT&T and T-Mobile have imple-

mented SRVCC (Single Radio Voice

Call Connuity) funcons in their

network to hand exisng VoLTE voice

calls over to their legacy networks

when a device leaves the LTE foot-

print. Ideally, SRVCC does not result

in interrupons such as speech gaps

noceable to callers.

All carriers showed a good LTE foot-

print inside the Capital Beltway.

There were just ve SRVCC aempts

on AT&T and one on T-Mobile.

All of them were successful and didnot result in call interrupons. AT&T

handed down the VoLTE wideband

call to a narrowband 3G UMTS call

and took on average 140 millisec-

onds, while interesngly T-Mobile

handed down the wideband VoLTE

call to a narrowband 2G GSM call

within 215 milliseconds, and then

aer another 21 seconds handed

it over to a 3G UMTS call. This sug-

gests dierent SRVCC layer strategies

between AT&T and T-Mobile. In con-

clusion, SRVCC successfully provides

a soluon for leaving the networks’

LTE footprints, with an expected re-

ducon in voice quality and a slightly

dierent implementaon betweenAT&T and T-Mobile.

Verizon Wireless has not implement-

ed SRVCC funconality; when go-

ing out of LTE coverage, an ongoing

VoLTE call would drop. The coverage

requirements for the 4G network of

Verizon with VoLTE enabled are thus

much higher as there is no safety net

of SRVCC. It needs to provide congu-

ous LTE coverage to keep VoLTE calls

going.

-90dB

-45dB

-50dB

-55dB

-35dB

-40dB

-30dB

-60dB

-65dB

-70dB

-75dB

-80dB

-85dB

2000Hz 3000Hz 4000Hz 5000Hz1000Hz 7000Hz 8000Hz 9000Hz6000Hz 11000Hz 12000Hz 13000Hz 14000Hz10000Hz

-90dB

-45dB

-50dB

-55dB

-35dB

-40dB

-30dB

-60dB

-65dB

-70dB

-75dB

-80dB

-85dB

2000Hz 3000Hz 4000Hz 5000Hz1000Hz 7000Hz 8000Hz 9000Hz6000Hz 11000Hz 12000Hz 13000Hz 14000Hz10000Hz

Speech sample received on legacy UMTS

Original speech sample

Original speech sample

Speech sample received on VoLTE

1



nternaonalComparison

The U.S. is one of the rst countries

with commercially available VoLTE

services. P3 wanted to see how much

carriers in other countries could

benet from introducing VoLTE if

they follow the U.S. implementaons.

P3 has carefully selected relevant

metropolitan areas around the

world with recent measurement

results from carriers without VoLTE

deployments, and compared voice

quality and call setup mes in these

markets with P3’s U.S. VoLTE-to-

VoLTE results.

Voice quality in these markets is

already on a fairly good level, but

comparison with the U.S. VoLTE-to-

VoLTE results shows improvement

potenal in many of these markets,

especially for call setup mes. It will

be interesng to see if connued

opmizaon of their VoLTE networks

will move U.S. carriers even farther

ahead, and how the rst VoLTE

implementaons in the internaonal

markets will perform.

Boom line: many internaonal networks could benet

from an upgrade to the latest VoLTE technology.

3.60

0

1

2

3

4(the higher the beer)

Average Voice Quality [MOS - Mean Opinion Score]

legacy calls only VoLTE to VoLTE calls only

14

A m s t e r d a m

B e r l i n

M u n i c h

V i e n n a

Z u r i c h

L o n d o n

M e l b o u r n e

S y d n e y

W a s h i n g t o n , D . C .

W a s h i n g t o n , D . C .

3.56

3.333.16 3.22 3.12

3.33 3.343.52

2.55



The P3 U.S. Public Benchmark 2015

evaluated the improvements that

Voice-over-LTE brings over the

legacy voice services, by performing

extensive measurements in the

Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

With VoLTE, the U.S. carriers overtake

European carriers in terms of voice

quality and call setup speeds. Yet,

the U.S. carriers will sll have to

implement VoLTE calling across

networks and VoLTE roaming, to

broaden the number of calls that

benet from these improvements.

Without a VoLTE implementaon,

Sprint is currently trailing behind

its U.S. competors and will greatly

benet from its introducon.

All carriers already oer a number of

VoLTE-capable devices from Apple,

HTC, LG and Samsung. Verizon

Wireless also oers Motorola

VoLTE phones. But, in many cases,

customers sll need to opt-in to

enable the VoLTE services and should

contact their carriers to enable this

new feature.

VoLTE currently is being deployed by a

number of carriers around the globe.

The U.S. results show what is already

possible with VoLTE with regard

to improved voice quality and call

setup mes. Further improvements

can be expected over me. P3communicaons will connue to

follow the evoluon of networks and

the introducon of new technologies.

Conclusions

The results clearly show: VoLTE is ready for everyday use

and brings signicant improvements to the customerexperience.

0

2

3

1

4

5

6

7

8

(the faster the beer)

Average call setup mes [s]

legacy calls only VoLTE to VoLTE calls only

A m s t e r d

a m

B e r l i n

M u n i c h

V i e n n a

Z u r i c h

L o n d o n

M e l b o u r n e

S y d n e y

W a s h i n g

t o n , D . C .

W a s h i n g

t o n , D . C .

6.76

6.39

7.07

8.41 8.32

6.19

5.245.52

6.99

2.69



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phone +1 973 984 6050, [email protected]

Headquarters:

Aachen (GER), Belgrade (SRB), Morristown (NJ, USA), Sydney (AUS)

All rights reserved. The informaon and statements provided in this document are for informaonal purposes only. Any measurements, recommendaons, opinions or ndings

provided are only true and accurate for the condions encountered at the me of any survey and P3 communicaons accepts no liability for any errors or omissions. In no event will

P3 communicaons be liable for any consequenal, indirect or incidental damages whatsoever, including lost prots, business, contracts, revenue or ancipated savings arising out of the use

of any P3 communicaons products or documentaon (or from errors or deciencies therein), reliance on the data or measurements produced or informaon contained within.

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www.p3-group.com

The Future

The P3 U.S. Public Benchmark 2015 is intended

to be the rst in a regular series of such reports

The mobile industry in the U.S. moves very quickly and is at the forefront of

deploying and operang some of the newest LTE technologies, like VoLTE,

LTE-Advanced, Carrier Aggregaon and WiFi ooading.

Right now, each of the carriers has a number of major cung-edge iniaves

under development to boost their networks and services in dierent ways.

P3 expects to see signicant changes by the me it performs the

naonwide P3 Mobile Benchmark U.S. 2016, which will cover a signicantly

larger geographic scope and addional services.

Documents

Bench mark Publik