Yes, Voice over LTE is awesome!

Yes 4G is the first telco in Malaysia to roll out VoLTE (Voice over LTE). While 4G has enabled better internet with blazing fast speeds, voice calls are often neglected. Of course, most postpaid plans now come with unlimited domestic phone calls and SMS but not much has changed when it comes to call quality.

VoLTE is the next evolution of voice by delivering high-quality audio across a data network instead of a circuit-switched voice network. Does it make a difference? We’ve tried it out and the difference is crystal clear.

Better audio quality

Compared to existing networks, VoLTE apparently has 3X more capacity than 3G and 6X more than 2G networks. This enables HD voice calls with clearer conversations. We have recorded a voice call between a Yes 4G LTE line on a Samsung Galaxy J1 (2016) to an iPhone 6s Plus, followed by another call between 2 Yes 4G LTE lines with VoLTE enabled. Hit play in the clip below and listen to the difference.

Faster to connect

Another advantage for VoLTE is better speeds for connecting a call. We’ve compared Yes with VoLTE against other 4 telcos (Celcom, Digi, Maxis & U Mobile) including U Mobile’s new WiFi Calling feature.

From the results, Yes has a faster “Call to Ring” time of under 4 seconds. If you average the other telcos, it took about 7.9 seconds. From our test, VoLTE is 50% faster than conventional voice networks and 37% faster than WiFi Calling.

While we don’t make much phone calls as before, VoLTE is a great improvement in both audio quality and connectivity. Apart from Yes, Digi too has plans to roll out VoLTE and VoWiFi by this year. What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments down below.