Vodacom VoLTE launches in South Africa with Samsung Galaxy S6

Here’s some pretty big news.

Vodacom will be opening its consumer doors to VoLLTE (voice over LTE) in South Africa, a move that will see it become the first cellular network to do so at the tip of Africa. So why the sudden move?

Samsung’s recent launch of the Galaxy S6 duo has prompted the move, and considering the cost of these handsets (ranging from R8800 to R16 100), one would expect some type of new technology being brought to the table.

“VoLTE is now officially up and running in SA thanks to these new handsets,” comments Andries Delport, Vodacom’s Chief Technology Officer.

“Within the next month VoLTE functionality will be added to additional devices, and we expect usage will grow rapidly as more and more handset manufacturers include the functionality.”

Instead of using the cellular voice networks, VoLTE uses the insanely-fast LTE networks that usually transports cat photos and the latest songs to your smartphone. This practically means higher-voice call quality and a faster connection period to those relatively close physically on the same network.

While this might not sound like something that needs a public holiday of its own, it’s another step towards better voice call quality.

“At present the VoLTE service is available to contract customers who have compatible handsets,” note the presser, and perhaps the most important statement of them all is this: “There is no additional charge to use this service.”

According to Vodacom, this has been in the works since September 2014, but the new Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge finally herald the beginning of the consumer VoLTE era.