LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a much talked-about next generation network technology. It is IP based and delivers true broadband speeds across mobile interfaces. However, LTE isn’t without its detractors. Roll-outs suffer continuous delays and many critics have suggested that its standards and protocols have been designed without consideration for the user experience.
One of the main concerns lies with how the technology handles voice. In the long-term, the goal is that voice will be carried as VoIP through IMS (IP Multimedia Substream). However, in the short-term there’s a patch-work of workarounds being debated, the most favoured being Circuit Switch Fallback. This simply means that the handset will ‘fallback’ to a 3G network if a user wants to make a call; but this has latency issues and may threaten the stability of a data application that’s open and connected to the LTE network.
Importantly, support for LTE within handsets is likely to begin with the smartphone segment. This exposes valuable enterprise users and early-adopters to a potentially questionable user experience. Such devices are also built to multi-task. Will tasks that require a consistent IP connection to the cloud tolerate a fallback / radio handover? For all of the infrastructure deals that are announced and the huge investment being made by operators, surprisingly little attention seems to be given to the potential burden on customer care and the user experience.
