(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/Mücahiddin Şentürk)
Two decades ago, Clayton M. Christensen coined the term “disruptive technologies,” and today disruptive change is visible across nearly every industry. Companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Purple, and Tesla have upended traditional business models, while in telecommunications apps like WhatsApp and WeChat rapidly supplanted SMS. These shifts illustrate how innovations that seem radical today often become the standard of tomorrow.
Mobile operators now face rising churn amid a saturated market. To stand out, providers pursue service differentiation through new features, technological improvements, higher network quality, and innovative pricing. In telecom, disruption is the norm: today’s innovations will become tomorrow’s legacy technologies.
Need for improved voice calling, especially indoors
Voice over Wi‑Fi (VoWiFi) is one such innovation poised to reshape voice calling. Industry observers predicted rapid adoption: Deloitte projected that by the end of 2016 about 100 carriers worldwide would offer at least one packet‑based voice service (VoWiFi or VoLTE). While Voice over LTE (VoLTE) offers clear advantages, VoWiFi presents complementary opportunities for operators.
Many users experience poor cellular reception inside homes and buildings because of location, building materials, walls, and trees. Ericsson’s ConsumerLab found that smartphone users place voice calls indoors about twice as often as outdoors, yet delivering reliable indoor cellular coverage—especially in basements or interior rooms—can be technically difficult and costly.
LTE shares the same RF limitations as earlier generations: signals degrade through walls and other obstructions. As a result, VoLTE can struggle with indoor coverage. Operators have options such as femtocells or signal boosters, but these require substantial investment in network infrastructure—an expense many operators hesitate to incur. Given that most urban homes already have Wi‑Fi and newer handsets increasingly support VoWiFi, offering Wi‑based calling as a complementary solution to VoLTE is an attractive and practical choice.
Why VoWiFi could ultimately win
Growing broadband speeds and widespread availability of Wi‑Fi have made it the de facto internet access method in dense urban areas. Household Wi‑Fi penetration among urban smartphone users rose from 30% in 2011 to 61% in 2014, and public hotspot density continues to increase. Forecasts projected rapid growth in hotspots worldwide, reinforcing the role Wi‑based connectivity will play going forward. Operators can leverage this widespread Wi‑Fi presence to extend voice coverage indoors and in cellular “dead zones,” helping reduce churn.
VoWiFi offers several advantages over other VoIP services for both subscribers and operators. Key benefits include:
- Native calling experience: users place and receive calls through the phone’s regular dialer—no separate app is required.
- Operator control: although VoWiFi uses home or public Wi‑Fi, the service is managed by the operator, which can reduce call drops and interference from other traffic.
- Improved call experience: faster call setup and high‑quality HD voice.
- Enhanced indoor coverage for locations with weak cellular signals.
- Potential savings on international roaming voice and text charges.
- Network cost efficiencies: calls routed over a customer’s broadband connection free up radio spectrum and reduce on‑airwave costs.
- Lower incremental cost for operators that already have an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) for VoLTE—deploying VoWiFi can be less expensive where IMS is already in place.
There are, however, challenges to address:
- Device support: VoWiFi remains relatively new and is only supported on a subset of smartphone models; older devices often lack compatibility.
- Quality control: operators cannot fully control the Wi‑Fi quality at private homes or public hotspots, which can lead to variable QoS. Operators can prioritize bandwidth on their managed hotspots, but such guarantees are not always possible on third‑party or public access points.
- Unlicensed spectrum: Wi‑Fi operates in unlicensed bands where interference from other devices is possible. Operator-managed Wi‑Fi access points can use radio resource management (RRM) solutions to mitigate interference, but public environments remain unpredictable.
Conclusion
Customers are willing to pay for services that reliably outperform legacy alternatives. Packet‑based voice services such as VoWiFi and VoLTE have the potential to disrupt circuit‑switched voice. Operators should launch VoWiFi when the service is stable and delivers strong quality; early negative experiences can deter users and contribute to churn.
For MVNOs, VoWiFi represents an opportunity to enter or expand in the market without heavy investment in radio spectrum. VoWiFi should be viewed as complementary to VoLTE rather than a competitor. Time will tell whether VoWiFi becomes the dominant way we make calls, but initial trends indicate it is well positioned to make a significant impact.
Do you think VoWiFi could be the next disruptive technology? Share your thoughts in the comments.