Telefonica Deutschland (O2) claims it has become the first German mobile network operator to successfully make a voice call purely over its live 5G network. Voice over New Radio (VoNR), which establishes telephony connections directly within a 5G network, is currently available on the live network at Telefonica’s first 5G mobile stations in Potsdam and Munich, although a VoNR-enabled smartphone is required to make use of the service.
‘Voice over New Radio will enable our customers to make optimum use of the network in the future,’ commented Mallik Rao, CTIO of Telefonica, adding: ‘We are introducing the technology for voice transmission much faster than with the LTE standard. With 4G, the simultaneous transmission of voice telephony and data took about five years after the introduction of the mobile standard; with 5G, it took only a few months. We are proud to be the first operator to succeed with VoNR on our 5G network.’