VoLTE on Honor or Huawei: what is it, how to enable or disable

VoLTE – what is it?

The name VoLTE itself consists of two parts: the prefix “Vo” and “LTE”.

And in order to move on to a description of this technology and its capabilities, it is first worth understanding what LTE is.

LTE is one of the newest, modern standards for data transmission over a wireless network. The basis for its development was the standard GSM/EDGE network, but now they are completely incompatible with each other. And they even operate in completely different radio bands.

In fact, this is the so-called 4G, but with a few differences. Using LTE, the user, ideally, can transfer various data at amazing speeds - up to forty-five megabytes per second! True, achieving such results is, in reality, almost impossible. Since the data transfer speed is influenced by a number of factors. For example, the distance between a mobile phone and a base station.

Now let's move on to VoLTE, a technology that is available on many phones today. For example, on modern smartphones Samsung, iPhone, Honor, Huawei and so on.

The prefix “Vo” stands for “Voice over”. Translation into Russian – “voice-over”.

That is, the new technology made it possible to transmit voice messages over a fast wireless network. To put it simply, it can be used for calls!

Difficulties with voice communication

Initially, cell phones were intended only for making calls; even the ability to exchange SMS messages did not appear immediately. The first generation cellular networks actually transmitted only voice, most often even in unencrypted form. Only with the advent of the 2G era did different data transmission standards appear, including the familiar GPRS. But priority in those days continued to be given to voice communications; very few mobile phone owners were still using the Internet connection.

Now the situation has changed dramatically. Each new cellular communication standard is designed for ever-increasing data transfer speeds. It has gotten to the point that the fourth generation (LTE) is completely designed only for the transmission of Internet traffic. Voice calls are currently made via 2G or 3G, there are no other options. It wasn't until recently.

Brief history of the development of this technology

For the first time, a service that allows you to transmit voice messages in this way appeared in Singapore in 2014, thanks to SingTel.

In the same year, South Korea and China began to actively promote this technology. For example, we established roaming within one state and were able to connect several mobile operators together.

On the territory of the Russian Federation, the pioneer in this direction was the Beeline company, which provided access to this standard to residents of Moscow. A year later, Megafon connected to it. A little later Tele2. But all of them offered the corresponding service only in the territory of the capital of our country.

But in 2018, MTS also entered this market. The operator offered its customers, which became available in almost all regions of our country.

Russian operators

If smartphone manufacturers already fully support voice transmission over LTE, the same cannot be said about telecom operators. In Russia, it is still more profitable to use equipment that works with networks of previous generations, reserving 4G only for Internet traffic. Progress in this area is being made, but very slowly. Here's how things stand for different Russian operators:

• MegaFon launched VoLTE, but only in Moscow. Moreover, this function was initially allowed to be activated only by owners of Samsung and Apple smartphones. At the time of writing, the list of devices has expanded to almost 40 models, including synchronization with VoLTE available on Nokia 3, ZTE V8, Vertex Saturn and LG G6.
• MTS is only testing new technology. Press releases have repeatedly stated that VoLTE will be commercially launched in 2021. It is assumed that the new type of communication will be available not only in Moscow.
• Beeline gave its Moscow subscribers the opportunity to try VoLTE back in 2015. But testing ended quickly, and since then there has been no news. They say that iPhone owners who use Beeline services will soon be able to talk via VoLTE, but these are just rumors.
• Tele2 launched a new type of communication in April 2017, but only in Moscow. The list of supported smartphones is strictly limited. Moreover, you can feel the “super quality” of your voice only when talking within the network.

What does MTS represent?

from MTS allows you to make calls using VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling.

For subscribers of this operator it is absolutely free. That is, you don’t have to pay money to connect it. The main thing is that the person’s mobile phone supports the required technology.

https://media.mts.ru/internet/145683

To activate the service, you need to send a short USSD command: *111*6#.

What is the main point of this proposal? The ability to call anywhere and from anywhere at the operator’s standard rate!

For example, one person is in South America, another is in Russia. A regular call will require roaming charges. Therefore, minutes of conversation will be very expensive. Using the opportunity provided by MTS, people communicate with each other at standard rates for the operator!

And this is one of the advantages of the new technology. There are others too.

Results

Today, voice transmission technology in 4G networks is still quite young and its implementation will still take quite a lot of time. Thus, if you don’t have VoLTE in your phone, then you shouldn’t worry too much about it just yet. Although, if you live in Moscow or near the capital, then today you will be able to experience all the advantages of the new standard; in addition, sooner or later, conversations over LTE will become as familiar to us as conversations on 3G networks. Therefore, if you are planning to buy a new phone, you will definitely want to know which smartphones support the VoLTE function. Dual VoLTE and VoLTE roaming are already available to us, which means buying a new device without VoLTE today means limiting your own capabilities in the near future.

The benefits of a new way of communication for ordinary people

In addition to the amazing financial benefits that this standard provides to people, which may well lead to a reduction in the cost of all tariffs from mobile operators in the future, this technology has other advantages:

• Almost instantaneous dialing to your interlocutor. Usually, when a person calls another person using standard mobile networks, some time passes before the second one hears the call - at this moment the connection occurs. When using VoLTE, communication is established almost immediately. And sometimes this can be very important for users;
• The highest quality of communication. No third-party sounds, poor audibility, speech interruptions and other unpleasant effects that people may have already become accustomed to, but clearly want to get rid of;
• When using this standard for communication, the Internet does not turn off simultaneously with the start of a conversation. But this is precisely what many people who are connected to standard 4G complain about. Now you can talk on the phone and calmly conduct parallel communication, for example, on social networks.

Volte action in the Russian Federation

The main operators of the Russian Federation - Beeline, Megafon, MTS and Tele2 - have supported VoLTE since 2015. However, for the period of 2021, the technology was available only in Moscow and the surrounding region. The coverage area is expanding slowly due to the fact that 4G connections are not available everywhere. Complete modernization should be completed by 2019-2020.

It must be said that the provision of the service depends on the operator. Some of them are focused only on the Moscow region, others have already extended their coverage to almost all major cities of the Russian Federation.

Specifically, the option is provided as follows:

• Megafon is the territory of Moscow and Moscow Region;
• MTS - almost all major cities of Russia;
• Beeline - within Moscow;
• Tele2 - within Moscow and Moscow Region.

Such communication is available only in large cities due to the fact that it is necessary to replace outdated equipment with new technologies that are capable of two-way voice communication.

Several disadvantages of this technology

Unfortunately, in everything good and modern there are always some shortcomings. And you need to know about them before completely switching to the next innovative standard. At the moment, this technology has two main disadvantages:

• The first is limitation. The technology is still relatively new. Therefore, its coverage area is not yet so widespread throughout the territory of our planet. Yes, developed networks are present in some small high-tech countries. For example, in South Korea or in Singapore. But in large countries this is a problem. Therefore, you can easily find yourself without communication if you move a couple of hundred kilometers somewhere to the side, into the outback. And in order to be available to other people again, you will need to manually switch the phone settings. Settings do not change automatically. It's worth remembering;
• The second is additional energy consumption. Using LoLTE, you will have to charge your mobile phone battery more often. And if it is initially very weak, then this can become a very serious problem.

Considering all the above advantages and disadvantages, people have two questions:

1. How to activate this standard?
2. And how to disable it, if necessary?

Let's look at these processes using the examples of today's popular Huawei and Honor phones.

Advantages

Each new technology necessarily carries with it a number of advantages and certain disadvantages. VoLTE is no exception in this regard, and therefore we are obliged to draw your attention to this issue. Throughout the article we have already mentioned some of the features of the new communication standard, but now it is time to highlight the main ones and talk about them in more detail. Traditionally, we will first touch on the advantages of new technology, especially since there is a lot to talk about here.

1. High connection speed. Without the need to switch between 3G and 2G networks, VoLTE calls happen in just a few seconds. In addition, the new generation network, in principle, establishes a connection faster than previous generation networks, since the connection occurs directly.
2. Simultaneous voice and data transmission. The second significant advantage of this technology is the ability to simultaneously transmit voice calls and traffic. Without the use of VoLTE, the transmission of other data along with voice greatly reduced the quality of communication, and the load on the network increased significantly. Thus, during voice calls, data transmission stopped.
3. High quality sound for calls. Even the best smartphones could not provide ideal call quality on the 3G network, since the maximum speed for voice transmission in third generation networks was limited to 16 kilobits per second. Using VoLTE can significantly improve the sound quality of the interlocutor’s voice, add depth to it, and also remove all extraneous noise.
4. Increasing the capacity of cellular networks. Because the new communications standard provides three times the data capacity, it allows more subscribers to share a single cell base station without having to switch to nearby towers.
5. Save battery power. When constantly switching between networks, the smartphone consumed additional energy from its battery. When synchronization with VoLTE is enabled, this allows you not to waste power on additional actions.

Activation

Naturally, to take advantage of this opportunity, you must initially own a smartphone that supports this technology. Enablement on mobile phones with Android OS occurs as follows:

• Click on the gear icon to go to the settings menu;
• Through the “Connections” section, go to “Mobile networks”;
• The proposed list of available options should include “Enable VoLTE”;
• You just need to move the slider to the active position.

On mobile phones running the iOS operating system, a similar operation is carried out as follows:

• Through the settings menu, go to “Cellular Communications”;
• Click on “data parameters” and find in this section exactly the same functionality as in the version with Android systems;
• Click first on it, and then on “voice and data”.

In addition to the capabilities of the mobile device itself, it is necessary to make sure that the operator in the region where the person is located provided the service he needed. Additionally, in the “Preferred network mode” settings you will need to set “4G/3G/2G”.

Naturally, it’s worth knowing how to disable VoLTE on Honor, Huawei or iPhone.

How to disable VoLTE on Android Samsung phones?

The function can be disabled in the smartphone settings. Shutdown algorithm:

1. Sequentially go to “Settings” - “Mobile networks and SIM cards”.
2. Select the item named “VoLTE”.
3. Deactivate the slider.

Data Migration Samsung - what is it and how to use it

If a smartphone owner wants to use the latest technology, but his device does not have the required module, he will have to purchase another gadget. Installing third-party applications will not fix the situation. In addition, the problem may be an outdated SIM card. It can be replaced free of charge by contacting your telecom operator's office.

Deactivation

Let's start with phones with the Android operating system. For example, how to disable VoLTE on Huawei:

• Return through the settings menu to the “Connections” section;
• Click on the item “Mobile networks”;
• Move the slider next to the corresponding sentence to the inactive state.

On iPhones, deactivation occurs like this:

• Settings – cellular communications – data parameters;
• Click on the function that connects the technology that the person does not need;
• Select “Data” and click on “Disable”.

When this standard is active, its abbreviation will always be displayed next to the 4G icon at the top of the mobile device screen.

Which models support VoLTE?

The function is available to almost all models, especially after the update. But the user can configure it automatically. To be completely sure that your smartphone can operate in this mode, open the settings. If you use smartphones running Android OS.

1. Open settings.
2. Go to "SIM cards and mobile networks".
3. Select VoLTE HD Call.
4. Click on active mode.

If you use smartphones that operate on IOS. The process also begins by opening Settings.

1. Select the "Cellular" section.
2. Click on Data Options.
3. Click on "Enable LTE".

Please note that if "Voice" is disabled, please enable operation to enable VoLTE operation.

Please note that if you want to test the technology for making calls to landline numbers, you need to enter the numbers via +7. Next, write the city code and user's phone number. Of course, constantly entering the code is not very convenient, but using this method you will definitely be able to talk to a subscriber with whom, in principle, it is difficult to establish a quality connection.

Why the function does not work and what to do

If problems arise with the technology, you must perform the following steps:

• find out if there is a 4G signal;
• check the current value of the “Internet calls” function;
• Check your smartphone system for support for new technology.

If the user was unable to resolve the problem on his own, it is recommended to report it to the provider's contact center. Employees will help the subscriber understand the situation and resolve the problem.

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Pros and cons of technology

Like any other technology, Voice over LTE has a number of advantages and disadvantages. Among the strengths of the technology, the following should be highlighted:

• Quick calls. Now users do not perform unnecessary operations and do not switch the smartphone to another operating mode in order to make the required call. Time savings on connection vary from 3 to 6 seconds.
• High quality sound. During a call, the user does not experience the inconvenience associated with hissing and crackling, extraneous sounds and noises that he encountered previously.
• Data transfer. Without switching from calling to other functions, users transfer data via 4G. Sound quality and transmission speed do not affect each other, so the work is done an order of magnitude faster.
• Group call. Finally, thanks to VoLTE, the subscriber conducts a dialogue not with one, but simultaneously with several interlocutors. This is convenient for organizing group calls and conferences.

But along with the advantages, disadvantages should also be pointed out. There are only three of them. The first drawback is this: not all smartphones still support the technology. The second drawback is that the technology is not supported in every city, although development is happening so rapidly, and most likely very soon the technology will become the rule, not the exception. The third disadvantage is the high load on the device. For example, you plan to have a conversation with subscribers for several hours in a row, and this factor affects the charge. But this circumstance rarely stops anyone, and the technology is therefore recognized as more useful than problematic, and fewer questions about it appear every day.