Interesting article by Mike Dano about mobile voice. But wow. 15 years after I started running “Future of Voice” workshops & advising on voice applications “beyond the call”, parts of the mobile industry are finally starting to wake up to the idea that there could be options beyond basic telephony. ☎️ But these use-cases are still the same old “session” and call-centric ideas. And they’re stuck in the trap of thinking that IMS is a platform. They’re blending dead-end phone calls with undead zombie RCS 🤦🏻♂️ As a reminder, IMS was already obsolete in 2006 and yet here we are, nearly 20 years later, still trying to pretend it’s a suitable basis for voice innovation… just because operators were forced to deploy it to support the deeply-flawed VoLTE. 📞 Meanwhile the real world of value in voice communications has bypassed telcos. Look at the world of non-call voice, from chatbots & smart speakers, to in-game voice chat and even podcasts. There are no 5G microphones at 5G conferences, for instance. 🎤 I’ll have to do a deep dive on this at some point, but I’ll note that the GSMA “5G New Calling” paper doesn’t once mention the words “acoustic”, “echo” or “noise”. This should give a warning of how much they understand the broader world of audio communications and human voice experience. A further warning of irrelevance should be its use of the term “OTT” and its insistence on the 140 year model of a “call”. 🔊 (Edit: a historical note that in the 1890s, it was already possible to get one-way "streaming music" via phone networks, aka The Theatrophone. No, it wasn't monetised by telecom operators, beyond the user paying for a phone call as access) #5G #standards #VoLTE #GSMA #RCS #mobile
NEW Following years of work, the US wireless industry appears poised to embrace rich messaging services based on the RCS standard. Now, some in the sector are turning their sights to rich calling services. Last year, the global GSMA wireless industry trade association issued a white paper on "5G New Calling" (5GNC). The document helps to lay out a vision of voice calling on steroids, a service that could combine video, text, images, documents and various audio services in a way that would "transform a regular call into a more rewarding or more efficient communication medium." The GSMA's document offers a handful of examples of what 5GNC might eventually support: Restaurants could deliver their menu to a caller over a voice call, essentially talking them through their options while the caller places their order. Retail stores could offer a real-time translation service that would deliver captioned comments atop a video call. Family members could use augmented reality calling that overlays effects onto each caller, such as "happy birthday" balloons in the background of a video call. And executives could share files and other documents inside of a voice call. The GSMA said that many such features could be delivered over a "mini app" structure using operators' IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) technologies. "The New Calling Mini-App is more akin to WebApps currently being defined in the W3C Consortium. A New Calling Mini-App is generally invoked during a call or prior to the completion of the call establishment to provide multiple features for users to improve their experience," the association wrote. MORE; https://lnkd.in/gnFMzYdi
Mika Skarp
4mo
Voice is an interesting and easy to use user interface and it will maintain its position also in information technology. Voice is not the same as VoLTE or VoNR. Voice requires low latency / low jitter connections but luckily bit rate is also low. Voice is a perfect use case for so called API business in cellular networks. Networks have all needed functions only thing missing is an API to sell the functionality.
Hey Dean Bubley, "undead zombie RCS"? Sounds like an attempt at relabeling a misappropriated moniker. Maybe it's time we start calling it a very late bloomer 😀. In any case, whether through RCS or even eventually 5GNC (hoping it is a faster bloomer), there does seem to be some form or service evolution emerging.
Evgeny Shibanov
3mo
To my surprise Video telephony was already avaialable in 1940s… Ah, telco innovation )))
Manager, Solutions Architecture, Amazon Web Services. My team helps Telco Software Vendors in their cloud journey.
4moIs it a late innovation this one? Folks in their 20s today will be the ones paying the bills for the next 30 years. Today I was renovating my driving license. I've witnessed 4 out of 4 young guys answering to the question "what's your phone number?" with "xyz but please don't call send me a WhatsApp, I don't answer calls". Interesting times ahead.