What does VONR stand for: Voice over New Radio?
Opale Systems
Monday, 10th October 2022
VoNR: what does this new acronyme mean?
VoIP (Voice over IP), VoLTE (Voice over LTE) and now VoNR (Voice over New Radio)
The history of one to one voice communication started with Graham Bell, when 2 phones were connected through 2 wires end to end. Anyone can remember pictures of ladies acting as manual switches.
Technology did not evolve much between Graham Bell's device and handsets on the 90's. Of course interconnection moved from analog to digital and switching started to be more modern but it was always relying on 2 wires.
In the 2000's Internet became a standard for a vast majority of households. It then became possible to launch IP solutions. Those who were student or even professional at that time will remember netmeeting that became popular because provided for free by Microsoft with Windows. Then many solutions appeared and finally enterprise PBXs started to handle IP communication between the PBX itself and handsets: that is when we started to hear about VoIP: Voice over IP. This extended to enterprise interconnections, then operators started to provide IP connections and recreate a private IP network. Finally with the increase of the reliability of internet connection and the possibility for backup connection (technical and economical) VoIP started to be used on public IP network.
This gives many applications such as softphones, the decrease of private PBXs, the decrease of communication costs because it uses shared infrastructure.
Later on mobile communication drastically increased and improved: coverage, reliability, bandwidth etc... It was time to make the same move on mobile phones and that is when appeared VoLTE. LTE stands for "long Term Evolution" and is a half point between 3G and 4G. That is when mobile operators started to develop voice communication over mobile data network.
And now VoNR on 5G
5G is getting deployed. At the moment voice calls still use lower technology such as 4G and lower. VoNR is dedicated to 5G and brings new benefits to voice communication: better connection times, better quality. It also enables video calls with a better quality. One could argue why do we need better call quality and better video: here are some examples:
First responders:
In the world of emergency communication, it is extremely important AND urgent to understand each other at best. Voice of course, video now becomes a thing as doctors or firemen might want to visually share something they are experiencing to get remote advice. The world of first responder communication or mission critical communication drastically evolved and will continue to evolve. Opale Systems is part of the tests in USA, UK, France, China and many other countries. When it comes to MCPTT (Mission Critical Push to Talk), look no further, you have found your test solution.
Maintenance:
When a technician is dispatched, he will want to be able to share what he sees to look for advice.
Augmented Reality applications:
Let's say room service in a hotel points its phone in a corridor and immediately knows what rooms are checked out and ready for cleaning.
Today China Mobile heavily deploys VoNR in China and is accurately scrutinised by the entire world to learn and adapt from live experience. All major mobile phone manufacturers are developing for VoNR: it will change your life, being personal or professional. You can think about it short term.
