It had been rumored before the beginning of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that Verizon would be demoing Voice Over LTE. Hoping to show off how well the technology works, Verizon showcased VoLTE earlier in the morning yesterday. The result was well received, and lead Forbes to catch up with AT&T's Chief Technology Officer John Donovan to ask him where AT&T stood in regards to their own VoLTE technology. Donovan came clean on the subject, saying that the wireless carrier plans on having their own VoLTE technology in place for a tentative 2013 release date.
In the interim, though, Donovan says there will be applications available for some phones that will provide methods for customers to make calls on the LTE network, much like VoIP applications currently available to make voice calls over 3G networks. Donovan said that there will be options for applications from AT&T, as well as from others, presumably third-party developers. Voice Over LTE is certainly a huge focus for wireless carriers utilizing LTE for their 4G networks, so it will be interesting to see how the different technologies developed and utilized by the wireless carriers compare to one another.
