MetroPCS Unveils First U.S. Voice Over LTE Service, Phone

MetroPCS this week unveiled the first commercially available Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) service in the U.S. and a new handset that will support it.

MetroPCS is offering the VoLTE-capable LG Connect 4G (left) at select U.S. stores and said it would add more VoLTE services and devices in the coming weeks.

"Being the first operator globally to reach this industry first speaks volumes about our company's innovative spirit and passion to achieve goals that we believe will have long-term benefit for our customers and for the company," Roger Linquist, chairman and chief executive officer of MetroPCS, said in a statement. "The initial move to LTE and this move to VoLTE allow us to achieve significant spectral efficiencies and will increase network capacity so that we can enhance the 4G LTE experience that our customers have today at a tremendous value. VoLTE also provides a foundational capability for future Rich Communication Services (RCS), which we plan to launch later this year."

Existing 4G LTE networks, like those from Verizon Wireless and AT&T, currently support 4G LTE speeds for data, but voice is still a work in progress and runs on 3G.

In Feb. 2011, Verizon of voice calls over LTE. For more, see .

In an , AT&T said it was "committed to deploying voice over 4G LTE as our 4G LTE footprint is built out further and we have technology in place to ensure our customers have a great experience with voice over 4G LTE."

MetroPCS has been at the forefront of 4G. It was the 4G LTE in the U.S. back in September 2010 via the phone.

In April, MetroPCS to its 4G LTE plans, several of which throttle users after a certain amount of data usage. Its 4G LTE plans now run from $40-$70 per month.

For more, see PCMag's Fastest Mobile Networks 2012 and ?